ANPDemissionary Prime Minister Rutte on his way after the first Council of Ministers after the summer break
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 16:44
The outgoing cabinet wants to prevent poverty in the Netherlands from increasing. Prime Minister Rutte assured this at his first press conference after the summer break. The four parties of his recently fallen cabinet must agree on next year’s budget before Prinsjesdag and Rutte is convinced that they will succeed.
Yesterday, the Central Planning Bureau issued the message that the number of Dutch people in poverty threatens to increase by almost one percentage point next year, to about one million people. But Rutte assured: “The cabinet is outgoing, but we are obliged to manage the country sensibly and we will continue to do so. I don’t think anyone wants people with such a vulnerable financial position to come out so badly.”
According to Rutte, there are various options on the table to do something about the poverty problem, all of which have their drawbacks, but a sensible choice will ultimately be made. As far as he is concerned, one of the spearheads is “that the income ratios must remain somewhat in balance. Now you see a great difference between the higher incomes and people with a small budget”.
According to Rutte, there is no doubt that there will be a lot of discussion in the coming weeks. But that is not so much due to the upcoming elections, he says. “I have never seen in those thirteen years of my prime minister that drawing up the budget did not lead to very complicated discussions, because the parties naturally have very different views on income ratios and where to look for the money. And what to do if coalition, is to find a good middle ground in that.”
‘Not automatic tax increase’
Today Adriaansens stated that she had only repeated what she also said when the cabinet was still missionary and that this mainly has to do with her portfolio. “I said that we should not automatically look at tax increases every time. We have done that quite often in the past period and that is ultimately not the best solution for the economy and the fight against poverty.”
According to Adriaansens, there are several options on the table. “And we are going to look at that now. I have not ruled out anything. I have said: we are going to look at a balanced system.”
Minister Kaag of Finance said this morning that it cannot be “that the most vulnerable will not be helped in a rich country like the Netherlands”. But she added that the national debt should not increase any further. She said that this coalition has “reached every corner of the budget” from the start and that “now we really have to do it with the resources we have.”
2023-08-18 14:44:35
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