Austerity measures against higher education are in jeopardy

Since Wednesday evenings, talks have been held in the back rooms of the House of Representatives. The topic: reversing the drastic austerity measures announced by the Minister of Education, Eppo Bruins. 

Two views
The cabinet does not have a majority in the Senate and is now shopping for support from the opposition. However, the opposition is united against the austerity measures - although there are two different views among them. One is more left-wing, wanting to take all cuts off the table, while another centre and right-wing parties "only" want to reverse 1.3 billion from the two billion cuts announced for education as a whole.

The first round of talks took place on Tuesday evening when the coalition parties did not concede anything to the opposition. They trusted that the Minister would obtain enough support in the Senate.

Historic blunder
A day later, a crisis meeting was held after all: coalition parties PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB seemed to have realised that the coalition was heading for a historic blunder in the Senate. The budget could be voted down for the first time in a hundred years. This means that the previous budget, decided by the previous cabinet, would remain in force, and that budget does not intend to reduce the number of international students, punish students who take longer to graduate, and reduce funding for scientific research.

A strange situation arose on Thursday. The minister was supposed to answer questions posed by the members of parliament. However, did that still make sense if the budget was being overhauled? MP Luc Stultiens (from the left-wing party GroenLinks-PvdA) did not understand how the budget debate could continue. “On Tuesday, the coalition's answer to all our questions was that we had to talk to the minister, but a day later the coalition parties themselves are in Geert Wilders' room without the minister. That's nonsense, real nonsense. And then today we have to debate with a minister who knows nothing.”

Motion discouraged
The coalition parties kept their ranks closed, saying nothing out of the ordinary was going on: normally one can submit amendments to the budget until just before the vote (which is set to happen next week, December 5).

After the discussion about whether or not to have a debate, Minister Eppo Bruins started his contribution as if nothing had happened. He thanked all parties for their input and said he had listened to protesters last Monday. As for the opposition's plans to reverse the cuts, he advised against them although people expect it will not be long before he is forced to accept them.