The cabinet must lower taxes and cut public spending in anticipation of a worsening economic climate said former finance minister Gerrit Zalm on the Nova current affairs tv programme on Tuesday night.

‘High energy prices and increasing tax and premium payments mean the public will face a tough time,’ said Zalm who was the longest serving finance minister since the Second World War. The Liberal party is not part of the current coalition government.
This is the first time the former right-wing Liberal minister has so explicitly commented on the policy of his successor Wouter Bos (Labour), says the Volkskrant.
Bos has based his calculations for government expenditure and revenue on a higher economic growth forecast than Zalm, the paper says.
Next week Bos begins talks on the government’s annual budget for 2009.