ANPThe six party leaders at the RTL debate
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 00:55
The party leaders of VVD, D66, PVV, SP, Party for the Animals and BBB agree that the housing shortage must be tackled and that overburdened informal caregivers and people on a tight budget must be helped much better. But opinions vary widely about the best approach to these problems.
This became clear during the second RTL election debate, held in a hotel in Amsterdam. The party leaders of the New Social Contract and GroenLinks-PvdA, Omtzigt and Timmermans, had canceled the program. The six party leaders who were present received questions from a number of guests from the public about housing, healthcare and the wallet.
Street
With the first theme, the housing shortage, all parties said that more had to be built. D66 sees the solution mainly in smarter and higher building and “an additional street in every city or village”. The PVV said that fewer migrants should be admitted.
BBB hopes to make better use of the existing housing stock, for example by converting offices. The VVD thinks that scrapping slowing rules can help and both the SP and the Party for the Animals want the government to intervene much harder and no longer leave housing construction to the free market.
Good accommodation
The theme of care was addressed by a woman who cares for her mother who has dementia. This informal care is difficult and all parties present understood her call for help and good accommodation in a nearby nursing home. The PVV, SP and BBB said it was a shame that cuts had been made to care homes and wanted them back as quickly as possible. A plan by the SP for a care community center was positively received.
VVD leader Yesilgöz tried to make it clear that there will be insufficient staff in the coming years to meet the growing demand for care due to the aging population. Her party has hoped for “smart technologies”, which are technical support to ensure that the elderly can live at home longer. BBB doesn’t really believe in this “robotization”.
Watch some excerpts from the debate here:
The last theme featured the parents of a family who earn just too much to receive all kinds of supporting allowances, but who have difficulty making ends meet. Here too, the six party leaders were unanimous that something had to be done about this situation.
The VVD wants to reduce taxes, leaving more net money. “The middle incomes are in a pinch,” said Yesilgöz. BBB has a plan to see whether no premium or tax needs to be paid on the first 30,000 euros. “But it’s just an idea,” Van der Plas added.
Free beer
BBB, but also SP, wants to help people extra, for example by increasing the national debt. Both BBB and the SP have not had the party program calculated by the Central Planning Bureau, so it is not clear what the effect of the proposed plans is. “Free beer,” Jetten Marijnissen suggested.
Afterwards, the party leaders looked back on the debate with satisfaction. No one had missed the two deregistered party leaders Omtzigt and Timmermans.
Political reporter Xander van der Wulp:
“The debate was a bit out of balance due to the absence of two important parties, but an interesting discussion arose, fueled by people who talked about their problems in a very practical way.
It was striking that the six party leaders present regularly agreed, namely on the problems. The solutions, and especially how everything should be paid for, led to considerable discussion, because then it is a lot more difficult to agree with each other.
Furthermore, Yesilgöz’s position stood out the most. Together with the VVD, it is a contender to become the largest party and has regularly tried to stand above the parties. She had to endure a striking number of attacks, including from D66 leader Jetten. with whom she served in the previous cabinet.
Yesilgöz was hardly prepared to take responsibility for things that went wrong during the years in which the VVD governed. She always tried to look to the future. When Marijnissen from the SP pointed out things that are not going well in healthcare, Yesilgöz said: ‘I am not going to have the same debate with you that you had with Mark Rutte for twelve years.'”
2023-11-12 23:55:15
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