Kaag fears a long economic blow: ‘Great instability threatens’ | Inland

That is what the D66 leader says on Sunday morning in the TV program WNL op Zondag. “We are all very concerned about high inflation,” says Kaag. “The energy prices are huge, that affects a lot of people. There is a threat of major instability, macroeconomically.”

Fuel

And that will also be felt in the wallets of citizens, because the prices of energy, fuel and food will skyrocket. Kaag expects a problem that will continue to be felt for some time to come: “We can’t tell anyone that we can get away with this for free. We are paying a price for this and I think it will continue.”

There is great pressure on the cabinet to quickly come up with purchasing power repairs, but Kaag emphasizes that it will take some time to come up with solutions. “There is no easy answer,” says Kaag, who also repeats the cabinet’s mantra that not everyone can be compensated for everything. The focus is mainly on lower incomes: “We are working very hard to see if and how we can make it as bearable as possible.”

wartime

That will take a few more weeks, says Kaag: “In times of crisis and war, we must also remain calm, maintain our course, see what we can do. That’s what we’re doing this weeks.”

Reducing Russia’s gas dependence by getting more from Groningen’s gas fields ‘would be the very last option’, says Kaag. Even though a majority of Groningen residents themselves indicate that more gas could be extracted if the Netherlands stops importing Russian gas. Kaag appreciates that: “I think it’s very noble of the people in Groningen.”

Kaag also responded to statements by Russian President Putin who called the economic sanctions imposed on Russia ‘war crimes’. According to Kaag, this is ‘the world upside down’: “The violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, the invasion and now the acts of war by Russia are beyond dispute. That is where the act of war started.” She describes the statements of the Russian president as ‘war propaganda’.

Isolation

The finance minister is ‘greatly concerned’ that Putin is ‘acting more and more from isolation’: ‘You see that more often with autocrats in their last years, that they are becoming more and more eccentric. There is a great danger there.”

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