The new lockdown is “a vale of tears”, said D66 MP Jan Paternotte. The outgoing cabinet had to ‘press the panic button’, which meant that ‘clumsy measures’ were once again necessary, said SP member Maarten Hijink.
A grumpy mood prevailed in the House of Representatives on Tuesday during the corona debate that was inserted during the recess. The parties questioned whether boosting earlier could have prevented the lockdown. They also mainly looked ahead: how will the Netherlands get out of this early next year?
Coalition and opposition parties agree on one thing: now that the country is back in lockdown and a new cabinet takes office in January, after two years of crisis management, it is time for a decent long-term strategy. “We are at a dead end,” said PvdA MP Attje Kuiken, who had expected the start of such a vision in the coalition agreement presented last week. “I read three paragraphs about corona instead of a full chapter. I really think that is a missed opportunity.”
Paternotte disagrees. According to him, the new coalition, a continuation of the current one with VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie, has made agreements to invest in the ‘pandemic preparedness’ of the health care system. This will make IC capacity ‘more flexible and resilient’ in the coming years. He bounced the ball back to Kuiken by telling her that the ‘opposition agreement’ presented by PvdA and GroenLinks at the beginning of this month also did not include anything about corona policy.
Also read: Corona will remain with us for a long time. Which corona policy do we choose?
Prime Minister Rutte said his current outgoing cabinet is indeed working on a long-term plan, which should be completed by the end of January. His new cabinet may have already taken office by then. It is unlikely that Hugo de Jonge will return as ‘corona minister’, because the Ministry of Health is going to a party other than the CDA.
VVD spokesperson Aukje de Vries has faith in the corona plans of the (new) cabinet and invites the opposition to actively contribute ideas. Corona is too important to be “a coalition opposition thing,” says De Vries. “If there are other good ideas, we can talk about that.”
The necessary suggestions came from both sides in the Chamber. It is striking that the political unanimity does not always follow the traditional opposition coalition lines.
1. More IC beds
The coalition wants to be able to flexibly expand the number of IC beds in the event of new waves or future crises. Part of the opposition wants more beds on a structural basis. “Why does the Prime Minister not see that he must structurally invest in hospitals?” asked PVV MP Fleur Agema. Rutte thinks that many more permanent IC beds are not efficient “because then many beds would be empty”.
2. Concentrating Covid care
IC doctors suggested it before, the outgoing cabinet is now investigating: special hospitals, so that Covid care can be more concentrated. Both opposition party PvdA and coalition party CDA asked Tuesday how quickly this can be achieved. Corona minister De Jonge wants to experiment with it this winter.
3. 2G
Is greater distinction between vaccinated and unvaccinated acceptable? D66 is the strongest proponent of 2G – access only if you are vaccinated or cured – and calls on the deeply divided Chamber to make choices. “Politics does not dare to talk about alternatives such as 2G, while other countries have been doing this for a long time. We should not become the champion for the longest lockdown.” A debate on the current cabinet’s 2G law has been postponed until January.
4. Vaccination obligation
The ministries of Economic Affairs, Social Affairs and Finance have asked the cabinet to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of a vaccination obligation, it was announced on Tuesday. In this way, possible lockdowns can be prevented. A vaccination obligation is still going too far for the cabinet, Rutte said in the debate. “But you can’t rule out anything in this crisis.” A number of (Christian) groups are against this in principle.
5. Better ventilation
From left to right, the cabinet is accused of not having worked adequately on good ventilation for schools, catering and other public spaces. “Shouldn’t this have been sorted out a long time ago?”, said SGP leader Kees van der Staaij. D66 asked the cabinet to come up with a plan to reopen schools in January with better ventilation.
6. More accessible testing
Other countries have not only focused on mass vaccination, but also on mass testing, GroenLinks Member of Parliament Lisa Westerveld noted. She cited Portugal and Denmark as examples. “I am asking the cabinet not to bet on one horse again. It takes more than boosting, make real work of testing.”
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