Many EU politicians have berated the Netherlands for failing to avert the political crisis about austerity measures.

At the last round of negotiations on the Greek bail-out some five months ago, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager called on EU countries to impose iron discipline when it came to managing their national budgets. They insisted on introducing a penalty system for countries that failed to meet the EU deficit norm of three percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). “It should be made very difficult for politicians to renege on their agreements,” Rutte said.

Now the Netherlands is itself faced with the prospect of not being able to balance its books. The budget negotiation between the minority coalition partners – Mark Rutte’s conservative VVD and the Christian Democrats – and their parliamentary backer Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party, lasted seven weeks. Wilders walked away just as an agreement seemed imminent. The EU deadline for reaching agreement on further cutbacks is 30 April, which means the prime minister will have to rely on the opposition to get his budget through parliament.

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RNW