Dutch government averts budget crisis with support of small parties - by Anthony Deutsch

The Dutch government on Friday won the support of several small opposition parties needed to push through a fresh round of austerity cuts, averting a budget crisis.

The centre-right coalition of Liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte concluded several days of negotiations with an agreement to trim away an additional 6 billion euros ($ 8.12 billion)  in government spending in 2014.

Dutch news agency ANP said a deal was reached between the government, which lacks a majority in the Senate, and two small Christian parties - the Christian Union and the conservative SGP - as well as the right-of-centre Democrats 66.

The cuts are needed to bring the Netherlands in line with the European Union's 3 percent budget deficit target.

Dutch finance minister and Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem cancelled a trip to the annual IMF meetings in Washington this week to focus on the negotiations.

Read more: Dutch government averts budget crisis with support of small parties - World | The Star Online

The Netherlands: In a remarkable political achievement Dutch progressive politicians agree on austerity budget deal

The Dutch caretaker government and three opposition parties announced today Thursday that they managed to strike a provisional 2013 austerity budget deal.

Prospects for a successful deal to reduce the deficit by an April 30 deadline seemed unlikely given the timing of Wilders' walkout and the fact that few political parties appeared willing to take responsibility for a round of politically unpopular cuts ahead of a general election in September.

However, all five parties involved in the talks managed to agree on a package today. Measures include pay freezes and housing market reforms, but most details have not yet been released.

Rutte and his free-market VVD party remain partners in the caretaker government with De Jager's Christian Democrats. The other three parties who negotiated the deal had opposed Rutte's administration, mainly because of the anti-immigration and anti-Islam policies of Wilders' party. Alexander Pechtold, the leader of the small centrist D-66 party, said the swift agreement was evidence Rutte had been wrong to co-operate with Wilders in the first place.

The agreement will now be vetted by government economists and the parliament, but it is still seen as a remarkable political achievement.

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