THE HAGUE, 20/09/00 - Labour (PvdA) had only one friend in the Lower House yesterday, the conservative (VVD) party. All the other parties liberally criticized PvdA parliamentary leader Ad Melkert, whose party agrees with the VVD that the coalition manifesto should not be tampered with.

During the General Political Debate, which traditionally follows the presentation of the next year's budget on Princes Day, the leftwing Green (GroenLinks) party in particular insisted that the Cabinet was much too frugal. Instead of using a large share of the surplus government funds for paying off part of the national debt, GroenLinks wants far more extra money to be invested in items such as education and healthcare.

To free up extra money, GroenLinks proposed basing the budget on a higher economic growth rate. Where the Cabinet is now working on an anticipated growth rate of 2.25 percent, GroenLinks suggested making this 2.75 percent.

The largest opposition party, the Christian democrats (CDA), only partly agreed with this. The national debt must be paid off, parliamentary leader Jaap de Hoop Scheffer corroborated, but the PvdA does not have to wait until next year to re-evaluate the agreements in the coalition manifesto. De Hoop Scheffer was pleased, though, that the PvdA does not support the introduction of a general drop in taxes from 2002. The CDA is more enthusiastic about "focused" tax reduction. Those on minimum incomes, families with children, and other less privileged groups in society need more help than those on medium and higher incomes, in the party's view. In this connection, De Hoop Scheffer particularly censured Health Minister Els Borst for not keeping her earlier promise to eliminate waiting lists.

The center-left (D66) party wants the budget agreements recorded in the coalition manifesto to be relaxed next year in order to free up more money for extra expenditure on healthcare, education and security. If Melkert agreed with this, then Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm would have no choice but to go along with it.

But Melkert made it clear that he had no intention of doing so. He was particularly critical of GroenLinks parliamentary leader Paul Rosenmoller, claiming that he acted as if the Cabinet had invested nothing extra in education, healthcare, and families with children. "Billions of guilders extra has already been reserved," he snapped.

But Melkert did announce that he would produce proposals for allowing people on low incomes and with children "to enjoy a more generous share of the prosperity". He also wanted the tax credit for the chronically ill and the handicapped to be raised, and urged the government to do something soon for people who cannot look forward to a full old age pension (AOW).