Bill 24
© Fred Debrock
The N-VA is the only party that significantly reduces the budget deficit with the calculated measures. The party also ensures average job growth, but hardly any purchasing power is added.
• Budget deficit: 3.9 billion euros better than expected
• Additional jobs: 57,320
• Extra purchasing power: 29 euros per month
What did the party have calculated?
The N-VA makes it a priority to get the budget in order. The list of measures that the party has submitted mainly consists of austerity measures. The bulk of the money to push the deficit towards 3 percent of GDP will come from savings in social security. In addition, capping expenditure growth in healthcare will yield 4.53 billion euros. Limiting unemployment over time amounts to almost 2.5 billion euros.
The party also wants not to index pensions above 3,500 euros for the next three years and to abolish equalization of civil servants’ pensions, which yields 841 million euros. Another striking measure is the non-indexation of the living wage. This will generate half a billion euros, but should mainly serve to widen the difference between working and not working. To serve those who work, the N-VA proposes, among other things, to abolish the special social security contribution – an archaic tax. This entails a cost of approximately 1.2 billion euros.
What does the exercise say about the party?
According to the calculations of the Federal Planning Bureau, the measures submitted by the N-VA result in a deficit of 3.63 percent. Without the proposed interventions, the deficit would reach 5.6 percent of GDP in 2029. The N-VA is convinced that if the regions balance their budgets, the Belgian deficit will be around 3 percent in 2029. The party also succeeds in creating an additional 57,320 jobs on top of the natural job growth. The party is in the middle bracket, but does not allow the budget to be further derailed like the job champions CD&V and Vlaams Belang. The N-VA’s focus is not on additional purchasing power. On average, this will increase by 29 euros per month in 2029. Purchasing power is even declining in the two lowest deciles. Logical, because that is where most of the recipients of benefits are located that the N-VA wants to save on.
What does the party say about the exercise?
The N-VA regrets that the exercise should not be carried out within a strict budgetary restriction, “as a result of which other parties cheerfully pass on tax cuts and/or expenditure increases that further increase the deficits and debt.” The party is also not completely happy with the calculation models, because, for example, they do not fully measure the impact of a measure such as limiting unemployment over time on the number of jobs. At the same time, according to the N-VA, the exercise shows that you can streamline the budget.
