73% of Dutch entrepreneurs dissatisfied with Jetten Cabinet's first three months
The vast majority (73%) of entrepreneurs in the Netherlands are dissatisfied with the Jetten I Cabinet after three months in office. They give the minority Cabinet a failing grade of 4.6 out of ten, complaining about too little decisiveness, too many rules, and excessively high taxes, according to a poll by Ipsos I&O for the Financieele Dagblad.
The FD called the negative sentiment regarding the new government so early in its term very striking, especially because the D66, VVD, and CDA Ministers are specifically focused on improving the business climate. The coalition agreement allocates billions for tackling nitrogen emissions and housing construction, while tax increases and budget cuts mainly affect workers, healthcare, and social security.
“Entrepreneurs need stable policy, and that has not been the case in recent years,” a spokesperson for MKB-Nederland, the trade organization for small- and medium-sized enterprises, told FD. “The current Cabinet started with good plans for the business climate, but entrepreneurs are not seeing much of that yet.”
Commonly heard complaints include an excessive regulatory burden, a lack of effective decision-making, and the government’s decisions being too unpredictable.
Most entrepreneurs (45%) would rather see the government make more investments than budget cuts (18%). Despite this, a majority of entrepreneurs support planned cuts to disability benefits (65%) and unemployment benefits (64%). They are also very against (64%) the trade unions’ plans for a public transport strike against these cuts to social assistance benefits.
Ipsos I&O surveyed 550 entrepreneurs for this poll. The majority of them are SMEs.
The researchers also polled the general public. 70 percent of voters are dissatisfied with the Jetten I Cabinet. There is less support among voters for cuts to the disability benefit (47%) and unemployment benefit (36%), and more support for plans to strike in protest - 33 percent of voters are against the planned strikes, and 35 percent are in favor.
