House of Representatives last May. Photo Shutterstock And so are the VVD, NSC and BBB. However, they do not have a majority in the Senate.
On Thursday afternoon, GroenLinks-PvdA also accidentally voted in favour of the new cuts to education. How did that happen? A mistake, says Member of Parliament Luc Stultiens afterwards. ‘We have corrected it and will vote against it in the Senate.’
In less than an hour on Thursday, the last day before the political recess, the president of the House rushed several hundred motions, amendments and bills through the House of Representatives. This included a package of 400 million euros in additional cuts to education, of which almost 60 million euros will affect higher education.
NSC too
The coalition voted unanimously in favour of these cuts. The opposition parties’ proposals to reverse all kinds of cuts did not obtain a majority. Even the coalition party NSC, which during earlier debates seemed to sympathise with the opposition, ultimately voted in favour of the cuts.
As a result, higher education will receive two million euros less funding this year and 23 million less next year. The cut is expected to rise to a structural 58 million euros in subsequent years. This stems from the government’s Spring Memorandum.
However, the Senate still has to approve it. The Senate will discuss it on Tuesday and may vote on it then, but this may not happen until after the summer.
Translated with DeepL
