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The Dutch minority cabinet may be heading for an unusual manoeuvre to get its 2027 tax plan through parliament: allowing its own coalition parties to vote against one another. After a long debate on Wednesday night, the three governing parties said they may allow a “split vote,” showing how difficult it is for the government to find a majority.
What the coalition parties said
Prime Minister Rob Jetten’s centrist-liberal D66 and the Christian-democrat CDA indicated they could support opposition changes to the tax plan, even if their coalition partner, the right-wing liberal VVD, votes against them. “It is not an unthinkable situation,” D66 finance spokesman Henk-Jan Oosterhuis said after repeated questions from MPs, adding: “The coalition is not a merger party.” Inge van Dijk from the CDA said split voting was “certainly not the intention,” but did not rule it out, saying the coalition would discuss how to vote.
This is possible because parliament votes on each amendment separately before voting on the whole. In the scenario being discussed in The Hague, the VVD could vote against raising the wealth tax, while D66 and the CDA could pass it with help from the left-wing opposition. This would keep both the tax plan and the coalition alive.
The wealth-tax amendment
The main issue is an amendment from the left-wing Pro (formerly GroenLinks-PvdA) and Volt. It would move 1.5 billion euros of tax from workers to the wealthiest. Income tax would go down, paid for by higher taxes on large fortunes, more tax on business owners’ income from their companies, and ending tax breaks for passing family businesses to the next generation. Pro leader Jesse Klaver said people who earn money from wealth should pay as much tax as those who earn the same by working.
The VVD is strongly against the proposal. VVD MP Wendy van Eijk called it “unthinkable” for any coalition party to support “in this form,” saying it would be bad for the Netherlands because it taxes entrepreneurs more. She also said it was “unthinkable” that the rest of the coalition would back it. Jetten, for his part, said he saw no coalition blockade on higher wealth taxes.
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The Markuszower controversy
The numbers have also drawn criticism from the left. The coalition has only 66 out of 150 seats and now seems likely to win next week’s lower-house vote with help from ChristenUnie, 50PLUS, and the group led by former PVV MP Gidi Markuszower, who said he would support the plan to avoid new elections. Left-wing parties like Pro, Denk, and the Party for the Animals criticised the government for relying on Markuszower. They pointed out that parliament, including the coalition, voted earlier this year against working with politicians who call for violence against refugees. Markuszower had said Palestinian refugees should be stopped “with maximum violence.” Oosterhuis said there was “no agreement” with Markuszower, but added that if he wanted to support the plan, “I am not going to ask him to vote against it.” Pieter Grinwis from ChristenUnie called the situation “frankly a mess.”
What happens next
A lot is at stake. The tax plan sets income-tax rates and other levies for next year and must pass in time for the tax office to use them. If it fails, the cabinet would almost certainly fall. There are still days of negotiation ahead. The lower house (Tweede Kamer) votes on 12 November. Even if it passes there, the Senate (Eerste Kamer) must also approve it before the end of the year, and the coalition would need support from either Pro and Volt or the BBB.