It is a standard procedure for the Government to pass a supplementary budget. That the budget is less than what it was in March of this year is a good development. But AVP still opted to vote against it because they find that the Government is cutting employees’ salaries but not in commerce services.
For example, the Government did not stop its contracts of building rentals, law firms, coordinators, etc. AVP feels that the Government can save a lot of money there instead of cutting into public service employees’ salaries.
Daphe Lejuez, who supported the supplementary budget, can not understand why a meeting that was supposed to take between four and five hours turned into a 16-hour long debate. And all for nothing.
For the coalition partners, this budget gives them some breathing space until the end of the year. The government wasn’t able to maintain the same budget because it encountered extra expenditures due to Covid-19. Now that it’s approved, they can comply with payments due, with the support of The Netherlands and local loans they took out recently.
In the end, the law got approved with 12 votes in favor and 6 against. All six against came from AVP’s parliamentarians.
