The members of the Dutch Senate want to know the consequences of rejecting the budget submitted for the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Even so, they are unlikely to vote the budget down.

On Tuesday, the senators debated the government’s budget on education, culture and science until late in the evening. They had all kinds of misgivings about the planned cuts to higher education and research.

Several opposition senators wore red squares, the international symbol of academic protest. They quoted activists, who invariably shout at strikes and demonstrations: ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it!’

‘It’s an assault on our children’s future’

‘This is so bad, I don’t know where to start’, Daan Roovers (Groenlinks-PvdA) complained. ‘Stupidity rules’, said Gaby Perin-Gopie (Volt). ‘It’s an assault on our children’s future’, Paul van Meenen (D66) declared.

Cracks in the alliance

The opposition held out some hope that they might be able to block the budget, not least because the parties of the government coalition – PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB – lack a majority in the Senate. As a new party, NSC has no senators at all and the government has had to forge a compromise alliance with opposition parties to get their policies through. However, cracks have started to appear in their alliance with SGP, CDA, ChristenUnie and JA21.

Existing agreements ‘do not necessarily apply in the Senate’, Hendrik-Jan Talsma (ChristenUnie) pointed out. He, like others, expressed concern about the legality of cuts to university funding. This proved to be the biggest challenge of the debate for education minister Eppo Bruins.

Bruins’ new budget effectively reneges on a long-term administrative agreement made by the previous government. Universities were supposed to receive ten years of funding for a variety of purposes, but the current government has thrown that deal overboard. CDA and SGP also raised questions about this issue.

A bond of trust has been broken, the education minister acknowledged in his response. He was unable to explain why this was not a legal problem, relying solely on the assurances of his officials. He could not even say for sure whether he had received these assurances in writing. In the latter stages of the debate, a stack of papers was rushed to the Senate, though this left its members singularly unimpressed.

What would happen if the universities launched a successful legal action against the cutbacks? In that case, Bruins said, he would have to find another way to cut 250 million euros from his budget. Whatever the outcome, additional funds would not be forthcoming.

More information

The Senate is due to continue its debate on the budget next week. Moreover, almost every party wants the Council of State to provide information on what would happen if the Senate were to reject the budget entirely. A majority of senators backed an information request to that effect. Only the PVV voted against it, claiming that opposition parties were only trying to slow things down. (Forum voor Democratie was not present for the vote.)

Even parliamentary groups that are positively disposed towards the budget expressed reservations. This was true, for example, of the governing BBB, which is troubled by the budget’s ambiguities about internationalisation in border regions and regions with a declining population. Senator Frans van Knapen wants universities of applied sciences in these regions to be largely exempt from the language measures aimed at countering the dominance of English at the expense of tuition in Dutch.

‘Voting the budget down will only make things worse; this is as good as it gets’

Despite all the misgivings, it looks like ultimately the government can count on the Senate’s support. Annabel Nanninga (JA21) announced that, as far as she was concerned, the budget would pass – though she still thought it was a bad budget. After all, she reasoned, her party had already struck a deal with the government. ‘Voting the budget down will only make things worse; this is as good as it gets’, she said. ‘Rejecting it would be irresponsible.’

Having heard all the answers from the ministers, SGP Senator Marc de Vries, saw no reason to postpone the vote on the budget. CDA senator Theo Rietkerk also appeared to rule out blocking the government’s plans.

And what about ChristenUnie? While the party still has partial concerns about the legality of the budget, in the end it has little desire to continue the debate next Tuesday. The party knows all it needs to know.

Translation: Taalcentrum-VU