A total lack of seriousness in Parliament and a lack of respect for the oversight role of our people’s representatives. Today, during the debate on the proposed amendments to the Top Incomes Standardization Act (Landsverordening normering topinkomens – LNT), we witnessed how the coalition fraction preferred to rush to suspend the meeting the moment the discussion grew “heated” and Minister Wever’s falsehoods were exposed on the parliamentary floor.
The reality is that Minister Wever presented himself before Parliament openly lying about the advice from the Department of Legislation and Legal Affairs (DWJZ/2026/811):
Minister Wever lies that DWJZ advised him to pursue a “favorable policy” (begunstigend beleid): This is FALSE. Nowhere in the official DWJZ advice does it state that the Minister may deviate from the law in anticipation of upcoming changes. What DWJZ advised was to amend the law through the due legislative process in Parliament and to respect existing law (including Article 12 of the LNT). Minister Wever cannot invent a “favorable policy” to override an active National Ordinance (Landsverordening).
Minister Wever lies that he has already conducted an evaluation: This is also FALSE. DWJZ is explicit on pages 5 and 6 of its advice that an independent Expert Committee must be established to conduct an evaluation on the practical effectiveness of the law. Minister Wever cannot pretend that the letter sent to stakeholders on August 21, 2026, and their responses received in September 2026 are equivalent to a professional, independent evaluation as prescribed by DWJZ.
The true reason the coalition panicked and requested a suspension is that coalition colleague De Meza (AVP) was about to submit a motion sending Minister Wever back to do his homework. The coalition grew fearful because this motion, with opposition support, would have amounted to a formal vote of incompetence (brevet van onvermogen) against Minister Wever right in the parliamentary hall.
As always, whenever things heat up and not all 12 MPs from the AVP-Futuro Fractions are aligned, they run to suspend the meeting.
A political comedy Instead of doing their job and addressing the legal reality, the coalition chose to suspend the meeting, supposedly to allow the minister to go perform the evaluation… the exact same evaluation Minister Wever had declared just moments earlier he had already completed! This is utter absurdity. The public should know that it was the Leader of the Futuro Fraction himself who stood up and said that since the minister needs to conduct an evaluation, it would be better to suspend the meeting and let him complete the work in question. Pure political hilarity!
This represents a complete lack of seriousness in Parliament. We cannot allow the suspension mechanism to be used to truncate debate, evade parliamentary oversight, and block votes on motions that reflect the true position of the people’s representatives.
I issue a clear and firm call:
Total transparency: Minister Wever must stop lying and quoting the DWJZ advice out of context.
Respect for Parliament’s authority: The LNT cannot be removed or relaxed without a concrete, alternative framework (such as Corporate Governance legislation) coming into force first, and without Parliament retaining its right to prior approval and oversight.
Immediate resumption of the meeting: The session must be reconvened without further delay to debate and vote on the motions currently on the table.
When legal arguments and truth are on your side, you do not need to rush to suspend meetings. The public deserves truth, transparency, and a Parliament that executes its oversight duty with firmness.