This year, only eight parties submitted their plans to the Central Planning Bureau (CPB) for calculation. Parties such as the BBB, PVV and Pieter Omtzigt’s NSC did not allow their plans to be calculated.
Now that the calculations are known, we will learn more about the implementation of the plans. There are also a few surprises that we did not yet know that parties wanted. An overview per theme:
Concern
When it comes to health care, we come across a few striking plans. For example, VVD and CU want to abolish the free choice of doctors. This means that if your healthcare provider has not concluded a contract with a health insurer, you will no longer be reimbursed for these treatments. Consider, for example, a physiotherapist or a psychologist. This gives health insurers more power.
GroenLinks-PvdA want to reduce the deductible by 100 euros. The other parties that had their program calculated want to freeze it at 385 euros. ChristenUnie and D66 want a personal contribution of 5 euros per hour for community nursing. Finally, D66 wants to cut back on elderly care and mental health care.
GroenLinks-PvdA wants to oblige new doctors to become employed.
Living
The differences in terms of housing are large, as can be seen from the calculations of the plans. For example, when it comes to the mortgage interest deduction. GroenLinks-PvdA, D66, ChristenUnie and Volt want to limit this further. Other parties, such as ChristenUnie and Volt, want to cut the notional rental value. That is the tax that homeowners pay.
JA21 wants to make agreements with housing associations to reduce rents. The VVD freezes the rents of social housing.
Poverty
Poverty is decreasing in most parties, according to CPB calculations. Without measures, 5.9 percent of the population would have lived in poverty last year. That amounts to almost a million people.
At D66, GroenLinks-PvdA, the Christian Union and Volt, poverty will be approximately halved in the coming cabinet period, the calculations now show. The JA21 program actually increases the number of people in poverty.
Traffic and public transport
ChristenUnie, Volt and GroenLinks-PvdA want to invest tens of billions in public transport. The Christian Union wants to invest more than 22 billion euros extra in it, GroenLinks-PvdA 29 billion.
That is a lot lower for the VVD and D66: those parties invest an additional 800 million and 2.7 billion euros respectively in public transport.
The VVD wants more money for additional asphalt: 2.4 billion euros extra. D66 actually saves 3.5 billion euros on this.
All parties want a kilometer tax, although the amounts differ per party. Per kilometer, motorists will pay the most at Volt (14 cents) and the least at the Christian Union (3.5 cents). The VVD has not yet chosen a kilometer rate.
Education and culture
Most parties invest in education. But VVD and CDA are both making cuts, as we now know. These parties want to cut one billion euros in education.
The VVD, the CDA and the SGP want further lower student migration. They want to achieve this by making Dutch compulsory in (most) bachelor’s courses.
What is even more striking: the VVD wants to make significant cuts to the NPO budget, namely 400 million euros. That is about 40 percent of the entire budget. The VVD and D66 also want to abolish social service hours. Young people between the ages of 12 and 30 volunteer to help others. That saves 200,000 million euros.
2023-11-08 12:56:24
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