European policy: Sigrid Kaag: Left-wing cosmopolitan will determine future financial policy in the Netherlands

In future, money will be looser in The Hague – as the top candidate of the left-liberal D66 party, Kaag Rutte has wrested considerable concessions from it. More money for climate protection and childcare, tax breaks for small and medium-sized businesses, a higher minimum wage: the coalition agreement bears the signature of D66 in crucial passages.

The decisive question now is to what extent the domestic willingness to spend will also rub off on European politics. Expectations are high, especially in southern Europe. This year the EU wants to discuss a reform of the debt limits. Dutch officials remain cautious: “As in any new government, there will be continuity and change,” says one. The new government is made up of Rutte’s right-wing liberal VVD, Kaag’s D66, Hoekstra’s shrunken Christian Democrats and the small CU party. She still has to get used to it, that much is clear. It only came together in December, after arduous 271-day negotiations.Presentation in the Euro Group For Kaag, Dutch politics is a second career. The 60-year-old spent her first time at the United Nations in several posts in the Middle East and a few years in New York. Kaag is married and has four adult children. She already gained government experience in the previous government, at that time as development minister and briefly as foreign minister. Her husband is Palestinian and also a politician. In the Palestinian Authority he was for a time deputy minister responsible for international cooperation. Kaag’s first important appointment in Brussels is on Monday. She will introduce herself to the Eurogroup and outline her positions. She will also Christian Lindner get to know the second newcomer in the Euro group. The relationship between Kaag and Lindner will be particularly interesting. While Kaag represents more left-wing positions under a more right-wing head of government, it’s exactly the opposite with Lindner. Both coalitions, the Dutch and the German, see themselves as reform alliances. Much in European politics will depend on their interaction. Including the decisive question of whether the euro group will succeed in embedding the common currency in a new regulatory framework that limits national debt on the one hand and offers enough leeway for future investments on the other.More: Dutch parties agree on coalition after months