The holding budget presented by the outgoing government on Tuesday will hurt the poorest in society and make women more likely to stop work, as childcare soars in price, opposition MPs said.

Socialist party leader Emile Roemer says the savings are being made ‘over the bodies of the old, the sick and the handicapped’. Caretaker prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende is ‘paving the way for a right-wing government’, he said.
Femke Halsema, leader of the left-wing greens Groen-Links said the budget is ‘anti-modern’. There are no real reforms in the labour or housing markets, while the cuts in the public sector are deep. Climate policy and social security have not been modernised and the cuts in child care are disastrous for women in the jobs market, she said.
Liberal democrat leader Alexander Pechtold said the cabinet has missed the chance to ‘improve our education and strengthen our economy’. The budget does not deal with a number of necessary cuts which are being postponed for the next generation.