Education and research spared in the national budget

No compromise had been reached, and several plans were leaked before the coalition parties presented their budget on Prinsjesdag. All sorts of austerity measures have been scrapped or postponed.

For example, the healthcare excess will not be increased just yet, and a cut to the state pension (AOW) has been scrapped. The government will not be making cuts to benefits just yet, and the excise duty on fuel will remain reduced in 2027.

All of this costs money. Higher earners will pay more tax, whilst the tax on wealth will apparently not rise. The question, therefore, is where the government will make cuts.

Nothing on education
So far, neither the coalition nor the opposition has said anything about education and research, for which the government is allocating an extra 1.5 billion euros. The parties intend to use this money to reverse the budget cuts made by the previous cabinet.

D66 was particularly keen on doing this. Prime Minister Rob Jetten’s party describes itself as the "education party", and the scientific community can, at least in principle, count on D66’s support. With D66 in power, cuts to education and research are unthinkable.

Besides, D66 had already reached a compromise in this area. D66 and the CDA initially wanted to “invest heavily” in knowledge, innovation and research, but had to scale back to only reversing the previous budget cuts when the more conservative party VVD joined the coalition.

D66 is certainly not willing to go any lower than that. Moreover, the party has Rianne Letschert as Minister of Education. As the informateur, the current minister was instrumental in forming this minority government. It would be highly unusual to take money from Letschert's ministry, of all people.

Sympathy
Moreover, the sum in question is relatively small compared to the entire national budget, and many parties are sympathetic to education and research. PRO will not touch it. On the right, JA21 will not do that, either.

As things stand, education and research do not appear to be prime targets for budget cuts. It will be a different story, however, if the government cannot secure support and ends up in a stalemate with the opposition.

In that case, the cabinet could fall, and no one knows what the consequences of that would be. If that happened, the coalition agreement would be thrown away, and all investments in education and research would once again be in jeopardy.