7 in 10 Dutch voters dissatisfied with Jetten I Cabinet as budget crisis looms

Just days before Budget Day (Prinsjesdag) on September 15, public satisfaction with the Jetten I Cabinet has hit a record low, with seven in 10 voters expressing dissatisfaction, according to a new poll by Ipsos I&O. The steep drop — up from 63% in July — comes as the minority coalition of D66, VVD, and CDA failed to secure an advance deal with opposition parties on next year's budget, leaving the government scrambling for votes in parliament.

What this means for you

For internationals living in the Netherlands, the immediate concern is financial. Leaked Budget Day documents, reported by NL Times, show that the government's reference premium for basic health insurance (basisverzekering) will rise by at least €10 per month to an average of €169 in 2027 — an annual cost of €2,028. While insurers set their own premiums, and can dip into reserves to keep them lower, this increase will likely hit everyone's monthly bill. The mandatory healthcare deductible (eigen risico) is expected to remain at €395 rather than rising to €455, as the government postponed that hike due to lack of parliamentary support.

Why satisfaction is plummeting

The poll, conducted by Ipsos I&O and reported by NL Times, found that only 18% of voters approve of the cabinet's policies — the weakest reading since Prime Minister Rob Jetten (D66) took office in February. Researchers attribute the dissatisfaction to prolonged budget talks and the perceived failure of the coalition to govern effectively. Voters blame the VVD, the right-wing liberal party of Finance Minister Eelco Heinen, for the impasse; only 9% believe the current government can solve the country's problems.

Support has eroded across the political spectrum. Just over half of D66 supporters remain satisfied, while only 23% of VVD voters and 43% of CDA voters approve. If elections were held now, the left-wing PRO party (the former GroenLinks-PvdA alliance) would become the largest with 26 seats, matching the combined total of D66 and VVD — a dramatic shift from last year's vote.

The budget bind

Jetten's hopes of striking a pre-Budget Day deal with opposition parties collapsed, DutchNews.nl reports, because both left and right demanded too high a price, and the coalition parties were split on concessions. The minority coalition controls only 66 of 150 seats in the Tweede Kamer (lower house) and 21 of 75 in the Eerste Kamer (Senate), meaning it needs at least 10 additional votes in the lower house and 16 in the Senate.

Finance Minister Eelco Heinen had to climb down on his party's insistence that €6.5 billion in welfare cuts — including reducing the maximum term for unemployment pay (WW) from two years to one and phasing out the incapacity benefit IVA — were non-negotiable. Most of those cuts have now been postponed by a year. The left-wing opposition PRO, backed by trade unions who staged a one-day transport strike last week, had campaigned to abandon the cuts entirely.

Prime Minister Jetten acknowledged that the budget presented on Tuesday is "not the end" of the process. Without an advance deal, the coalition will have to keep negotiating bill by bill as it passes through parliament — a process that could drag on for months and further erode public confidence.

What comes next

The coalition will now try to win over centrist opposition parties, such as the Christian Union or the PvdD (Party for the Animals), to secure the votes needed to pass the budget. But with public trust at a low ebb and internal divisions exposed, Jetten's government faces a rocky autumn. For internationals, the key takeaway is that health insurance costs will rise, welfare cuts have been delayed but not scrapped, and political uncertainty could affect everything from housing policy to immigration rules in the months ahead.