The ruling Dutch three-party minority coalition led by Prime Minister Rob Jetten appeared close to collapse Thursday, less than nine months into its four-year term, as a deal to support a tax plan for next year angered one of the coalition parties, reports BritPanorama.
Jetten’s centrist D66 party and the center-right Christian Democrats reached the deal Wednesday with two center-left opposition parties to get the tax package — a crucial part of the annual government budget — through the Dutch parliament.
However, fellow coalition member the right-wing People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) criticized the agreement as detrimental to the Netherlands and a violation of the coalition pact made after weeks of negotiations.
Jetten missed a European Union leaders’ summit in Ireland to attend a parliamentary debate on the tax measures.
The political factions backing the deal assert that it increases taxes on the wealthy while reducing taxes for low-income individuals.
Following a meeting Wednesday evening, VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, who is also the Dutch defense minister, expressed her party felt blindsided by the coalition partners’ agreement with opposition groups.
She labeled the proposal as poor and contradictory to the coalition agreement.
Yeşilgöz-Zegerius noted that if the other coalition partners supported the deal following Thursday’s parliamentary debate, a “fundamental reset” would be necessary, although she did not specify what that would entail for the coalition’s future.
A government collapse could lead to new elections next year, marking the fifth general election in less than a decade in the politically fragmented Netherlands.
This crisis parallels a situation in neighboring Belgium, where Prime Minister Bart De Wever submitted his resignation to the king amid a prolonged budget crisis. King Philippe rejected the resignation last Friday, directing De Wever’s coalition to continue negotiations.
Jetten’s administration was always a political gamble, holding only 66 of the lower house’s 150 seats. He was sworn in February as the Netherlands’ youngest and first openly gay prime minister.
He narrowly clinched election victory last October, obtaining the same number of seats as Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom but with a slightly greater vote share, determined by postal ballot counts.
Upon taking office, Jetten aimed to usher in a new era of consensus politics in parliament; however, that vision has largely faltered, with his coalition unable to quell internal discord over its initiatives and opposition parties demanding significant concessions for their legislative support.
The impasse ultimately culminated in the controversial deal Jetten’s D66 party and the Christian Democrats established with center-left parties PRO and Volt, further infuriating the VVD.
