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Diederik Samsom and Mark Rutte
On October 29, six weeks after the 12 September elections, the outgoing Dutch PM Mark Rutte (VVD, Conservative-Liberal) and Diederik Samsom, the leader of the Labour Party (PvdA), presented a coalition agreement between their two parties.
Relatively brief by the Dutch standards, negotiations were nevertheless difficult and each party was forced to make major concessions. The PvdA, for example, accepted a reduction in the top rate of income tax from 52% to 49% in exchange for an agreement to make health insurance proportional to income.
The VVD meanwhile has approved a general amnesty for minors seeking asylum in the Netherlands who have been residents for at least 5 years, in exchange for stricter criteria for social assistance to immigrants who not speak Dutch.
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