Dutch fight over how deep to cut The fall of the Netherlands' government over the weekend after budget-cut negotiations collapsed has been widely taken as a sign of a gathering revolt against European Union-imposed austerity measures. In one sense this is on the mark: Geert Wilders, the anti-Muslim eurosceptic politician whose support had given the minority coalition its majority in parliament, pulled out of the talks because he could not have sold his voters on tax hikes and benefit cuts carried out at Brussels' behest. But anyone expecting the Netherlands to turn towards the anti-austerity prescriptions of neo-Keynesian economists in London and New York has another thing coming. Across the political spectrum, every Dutch party in parliament - and there are 10 of them - agrees on the need for budget cuts and tax hikes to bring down the budget deficit. The disagreements are not over whether to cut, but how much, how soon, and who should pay. The parties made that clear in a parliamentary debate on Tuesday to determine when new elections can be held and how the caretaker government should function in the meantime. They agreed to hold elections in September, which means the current cabinet will remain in place and will need to pass a budget with the support of the opposition. Then, one after another, the party leaders took to the podium to denounce the deficit-cutting plans proposed by other parties, and boast of their own. Leftwing parties such as Labour and the Socialists oppose demands by the European Commission to bring the 2013 budget deficit below the EU limit of 3 per cent of gross domestic product. They want to cut the budget deficit to some 3.8 per cent in 2013, and meet the 3 per cent target in 2015. Their proposals rely on tax hikes that would hit higher earners harder, measures that take longer to kick in. The argument between left and right is really over what to cut. The agreement reached by the conservative government before Mr Wilders scuppered it would have raised healthcare charges, cut special-needs education, brought forward a planned hike of the retirement age from 65 to 66, slashed development aid, and raised the value added tax by 2 per cent. Some opposition parties oppose those specific measures, while others think they cut too deeply. None oppose cuts in principle, and Labour leader Diederik Samsom chided the government for its plans' failure to bring the budget in balance in the long term. Chalk it up to the famous Dutch fiscal rectitude and debt aversion, the anxiety of a country whose economy began shrinking six months ago, or to the desire of leftwing parties to show voters they can be trusted with the taxpayers' purse strings. But the idea that wealthy countries like the Netherlands, with its manageable national debt of 65.2 per cent of GDP, should be running a big budget deficit to generate demand that could lead to growth in weaker eurozone economies, such as Spain, is nowhere to be found in the Dutch political landscape. The politician who comes closest to embracing a full anti-austerity point of view is Mr Wilders - at least, since he abandoned the budget cut talks and brought the cabinet down. In the debate Tuesday, Mr Wilders said the €14bn in cuts the cabinet had proposed would "slow economic grow, raise unemployment, and lower purchasing power," and called for lowering the VAT rather than raising it. But even Mr Wilders has a package of cuts, focusing on leftwing causes such as development aid and cultural subsidies. His greatest concern is to make it clear that the budget measures are not being dictated by Brussels. The relative consensus on the need for cuts makes it just possible for Jan Kees de Jager, finance minister, to meet a crucial April 30 deadline to send a plan for deficit reduction to the European Commission for approval. If opposition parties co-operate, that could reassure financial markets. Mr Wilders and the leftwing Labour and Socialist parties will be unwilling to approve any plan that tries to meet the 3 per cent threshold. But a coalition of centre-left parties, including the Christian Union, GreenLeft, and the left-liberal D66 party, agrees with the 3 per cent limit and could give the caretaker government a bare parliamentary majority. As for the European revolt against austerity measures, it may have to wait for a less debt-averse country.