Today is Budget Day in the Netherlands, and outgoing Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende will present his ninth budget.

It is a day of tradition and ceremony. This afternoon, Queen Beatrix will process through The Hague in her Golden Coach with Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife Princess Máxima to parliament, where she will hold her 31st speech from the throne. Dozens of well-wishers have already started lining the streets to catch a glimpse of the royals.

Only this year there’ll be no political fireworks as the caretaker cabinet will not announce any radical new measures. The Queen’s Speech will be a summing up of government business. It is possible that she’ll include a message about cohesion in society, but otherwise there will be little controversy in what she says.

Everybody already knows that cuts amounting 3.2 billion euros will be announced, and there will be few surprises as many of them have already been leaked to the press. They are reported to include extensive cutbacks to the civil service and higher tax on cigarettes.

It will be Jan Peter Balkenende’s last budget and he probably hadn’t expected to still be in office when he announced his resignation as Christian Democrat party leader following the June elections in which the CDA lost half its seats in parliament.
 

© Radio Netherlands Worldwide