Cabinet Strengthens Coalition with D66, CU, SGP
THE HAGUE, 31/10/13 - The conservatives (VVD) and Labour (PvdA) want to continue to maintain close ties with the three opposition parties with which they concluded an accord on the budget for 2014.
The coalition parties recently concluded the accord with centre-left D66 and small Christian parties ChristenUnie and SGP. This was necessary because VVD and PvdA together are eight seats short of a majority in the Upper House. D66, ChristenUnie and SGP provide exactly this number of seats. De Volkskrant newspaper reported Wednesday that the cabinet is trying to give the recently concluded tie-up a permanent structure. From now on, the leaders of D66, ChristenUnie and SGP will be updated every two weeks by the cabinet leadership on the latest developments in the financial and economic area. On Monday afternoon, the three leaders joined the leadership of the coalition for the first time, shortly after the regular coalition meeting at the finance ministry. On 11 November, they will again meet with Premier Mark Rutte, Vice-Premier Lodewijk Asscher, Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem and parliamentary party leaders Zijlstra (VVD) and Samsom (PvdA). The first meeting with the three tolerance partners lasted only a quarter of an hour. At a detailed level, the parties were informed via the financial specialists. This mainly took place by telephone. Those involved stress that the cabinet has not yet tried to commit the opposition parties on other topics, which remained outside the budget accord. Insiders do however expect that the cabinet will from now on look in the first instance towards the three, at any rate in the socio-economic area. |