Spring Agreement exposes new lines of political divisions
De Volkskrant, page
1
18-05-2012
The national parties are heading into the general election on 12 September rearranged into a totally new balance of power that until recently nobody would have dared to predict.
Health care: The rollator will be removed from the basic insurance package.
Patients will have to pay 7.50 euro for each day they spend in hospital and other institutions. The health insurance excess will rise to 350 euro.
Average loss of purchasing power will be two percent
Trouw, page
4
18-05-2012
The incomes of many groups will decline next year as a result of the austerity measures in the Spring Agreement of around 12 billion euro. Nevertheless, Prime Minster Mark Rutte and the five parties swore that ‘across the board’ the income scenario is balanced. Purchasing power will decline by an average of two percent.
PvdA angry at lack of information about details of agreement
De Volkskrant, page
7
18-05-2012
‘Revolting. Idiotic.’ Ronald Plasterk, the financial affairs spokesman for the largest opposition party, PvdA, condemns the silence of the five parties that signed what is variously known as the Kunduz /Corridor/Spring Agreement this week.
US wants European countries to spend more on defence
NRC Handelsblad, page
2
16-05-2012
As soon as the economic crisis is over, the European NATO countries must spend more on defence, the US ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder, said in an interview in NRC on Wednesday.
Turkish groups protest at treatment by customs officers
NRC Handelsblad, page
2
16-05-2012
Three Turkish cultural organisations in the Netherlands have written to Minister of Justice and Security Ivo Opstelten demanding that he puts an end to the ‘malpractices’ of customs officials at Schiphol towards Turks who are visiting the Netherlands.
