International

SP leader Emile Roemer is pleased by the government’s decision to withdraw proposals to make unlawful presence in the Netherlands a criminal offence, describing the proposed measure as ‘an abuse of human rights’ which ‘has now been thrown out, and that’s good news.’ On the other hand he is less pleased by the way in which this was achieved, calling the deal between the two governing parties – Labour (PvdA) and the right-wing liberals (VVD) – as ‘unsavoury’, on the grounds that part of the agreement gives people on high incomes an additional tax advantage. ‘High income groups will profit from this fresh exchange of principles between PvdA and VVD. They will get a tax advantage, and those on low incomes will soon be getting the bill for this,’ he says. ‘And that’s on top of the fact that at the end of last year those on the very highest incomes have already been granted a tax advantage costing us half a billion.’

The Netherlands must be able to say ‘no’ to the EU more often than it does, restrain the power of lobbyists and be prepared in case the euro disintegrates.