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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15823220

Four parties hammer out agreement filled with bad news for scientists

The nationalist, populist Party for Freedom, led by Geert Wilders, won 23% of the vote in the November 2023 House elections, putting Wilders—once a fringe figure who proposed a “head rag tax” on women wearing headscarves—close to the center of power. Since then, Wilders has been in contentious and often chaotic negotiations to form a government with three other parties, including the center-right party led by outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, which saw its electoral share shrink to 15%. The governing plan endorsed by the four parties, which marks a crucial step in forming a new government, includes a series of harsh anti-immigration measures. Centrist and left-wing parties fiercely criticized the plan during this week’s debate.

Another sharp turn comes in environmental policy. The Netherlands, a major agricultural exporter, has more farm animals per square kilometer than any other country in Europe, and their waste emits high levels of nitrogen compounds that violate EU rules and harm the country’s ecosystems. Past government plans to tackle the issue have triggered massive protests by farmers and the rise of a new party, the Farmer-Citizen Movement, that won 4.7% of the vote and is part of the new coalition.

  • neo
    14·
    5 months ago

    It would scrap the final two rounds—together worth €6.8 billion—of the National Growth Fund, a 5-year scheme launched in 2021 to boost innovation and economic growth by disbursing a total of €20 billion to consortia of research organizations and companies. The fund’s first three rounds supported dozens of projects, for example to boost the biotech sector, innovate in education, make the steel industry greener, and create a Centre for Animal-Free Biomedical Translation.

    The cut is “shocking, because it will hurt the country’s potential for innovation,” says chemist and 2016 Nobel Prize winner Ben Feringa of the University of Groningen, who sits on the fund’s advisory council. “It’s not a very smart strategy if you think about the problems we have to solve as a society.”

    The agreement also puts an end to the so-called Sector Plans, a scheme launched in 2023 that spends €200 million annually to reduce academic workloads, provide jobs at universities and academic medical centers, and structure the division of labor between institutes. And the parties agreed to cut €150 million annually from a $500 million fund to advance basic research.

    I couldn’t have said it better than Mr. Feringa.