Others have slammed the capriciousness of The Hague.
A stable government is a key requirement to grow companies, said Robert-Jan Smits, president of the executive board of the TU/Eindhoven and member of the Brainport Foundation supporting Eindhoven’s development.
Companies “don’t want to be confronted with continuous uncertainty, as is currently happening in the Netherlands, with all kinds of ad hoc measures, with regards to fiscal [policy],” Smits said in an interview.
Laurens Dassen, a Dutch lawmaker for pro-Europe party Volt, said policymakers were also short-sighted in funneling money from a €20 billion “National Growth Fund” earmarked for projects to drive long-term growth.
“You’re sacrificing your long-term investments, your future earning capacity, for short-term fun for the taxpayer,” he said.
Changing the guard
Adding to the concerns is the fact that Prime Minister Mark Rutte is on his way out. Rutte — himself a manager at Unilever until the early 2000s — has been credited with being open to some of the concerns voiced by big companies, like abolishing the dividend tax.
