The Senate is on summer recess. Tuesday, July 8 was the last meeting day. The Senate will resume meetings on Tuesday, September 9. A week later, the new parliamentary year starts with Prinsjesdag.
At the end of the meeting, the Chairman concluded plenary with a poem by Willem Hussem. “It is time to take a step back and perhaps also seek some reflection and wonder. Poetry helps with that. You quote poets during our debates for a reason.”
Set the blue
of the sea
against the
blue of the
sky, sweep
in the white
of a sail
and the
wind rises. “
In the subsequent summer reception for members of the Senate, staff, and external guests, the Chairman reflected on the previous year in his speech. ‘Looking at the debates and votes from the past year, there are a few moments that might have been different if there had been a caretaker cabinet and no campaign rhetoric.’ These were his own words from last year at the same occasion.
The most notable debates of the past parliamentary year were according to Bruijn the budget debates. While the Senate usually deals with the budgets before the Christmas recess, this year it took until the end of April for all budgets to be processed. ‘There was a risk of rejection of the education budget, a situation that was constitutionally unprecedented.’
The House of Representatives sought advice from the Court of Audit and the Senate from the Council of State regarding the consequences of a possible budgetless period. ‘In Dutch history, we already know the period without a stadtholder; a budgetless period has – for now – been spared us. Because the education budget was eventually adopted after extensive debate,’ Bruijn concluded.