Campaigning for the March 15 election, and then the indirect election for the Senate, is “really something,” Rutte said. “It’s about whether the Netherlands is going to the right or to the left.” He has vehemently opposed some of the positions of GroenLinks and PvdA in the field of taxation and security.
For example, Rutte decried GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver’s statement that raising taxes is “a goal in itself, regardless of what you’re going to do with that money.” So it’s very serious.’ The VVD does not want taxes to rise, Rutte stressed.
At the end of the election kick-off, in a pub packed with beer and bitterballen, Rutte said he could handle a “little leftist cloud”, “but it shouldn’t become a cloudburst”.
Safety
At the beginning of the electoral campaign, however, the leader of the VVD placed the emphasis on security, a traditionally liberal theme. He fiercely opposed the votes of GroenLinks and PvdA against the bill to increase the maximum sentence for manslaughter from 15 to 25 years. The proposal passed, but not by the two left-wing parties.
The smaller they get, the better. You only suffer from them
Rutte also didn’t have a good word for the attitude of the two left-wing parties who recently blocked a bill to impose prison sentences on those who use violence against ambulance personnel, police and health and transport workers. public. Rutte finds it “completely unacceptable” that in the event of violence against these people, the perpetrators can get away with community service. “I think a prison sentence is a fitting punishment, a vote for the VVD is a vote for a safer Netherlands.”
Opposition to the nitrogen law
Much of the opposition turns out to be against the government’s nitrogen law. In the TV show Buitenhof, Caroline van der Plas, (BBB), Jesse Klaver (GroenLinks), Lilian Marijnissen (SP), Attje Kuiken (PvdA), Annabel Nanninga (JA21), Esther Ouwehand (PvdD) were asked for their opinion on the law.
For example, Klaver and Kuiken want to include in the law that industry and aviation must also contribute to reducing nitrogen emissions. Marijnissen wants less attention to farmers and, in particular, fewer mega stables in the country. Van der Plas believes there is too much emphasis on nitrogen in the first place and Ouwehand believes the law does not go far enough.