Paradiso debate 2024: We should thank NSC on our knees for VAT increase

At 1 hour and 50 minutes, it happens. That's when Nicolien van Vroonhoven, culture spokesperson for the ruling NSC party, makes it clear how things stand. "The cultural sector should also take a look at itself, because there are whole groups in society that have nothing to do with culture." 

Venue: pop temple Paradiso in Amsterdam; the occasion: a church-early edition of the annual Paradiso Debate. Koepel Kunsten'92 has been doing this traditional season opener for 20 years. For 20 years it has run in broadly the same way, with mostly the same audience of people who think more money should go to art. 

14 years after Halbe

Once in a while the stakes are really high, and this was the case again. 14 years after Halbe Zijlstra, Nicolien Vroonhoven made it clear to the sector that it should be overjoyed to have NSC in the coalition. When the small talk in the former church near Leidseplein had been going on for an hour, she said the alternative to the VAT increase on culture, sports and events would be a draconian cut in the culture budget. 

That was halfway through a curious meeting in which artist and demagogy expert Jonas Staal made a strong case for banning the PVV. In the process, he also opened a frontal attack on Van Vroonhoven's party NSC. Which normalises by cooperating with the supposedly extra-parliamentary Schoof cabinet what should never be normal.

Trembling with anger 

In an initial, trembling with anger, Van Vroonhoven revealed that she had been on the verge of leaving the room. After making it clear that she was not served by Staal's expletives, she remained seated, but did not really calm down. The extreme tension emanating from her may reflect the ferocity of the coalition debates. The other parties leak with regularity about NSC leader Omtzigt's emotional outbursts during late-night meetings. 

At the end, on that 1 hour and 50 minutes, Van Vroonhoven, stammering and stuttering, did her best to clarify why the cultural sector should reach out. She said at least one of the coalition parties involved wanted something to do with "culture only for the Dutch".

Kremlin watchers may infer that in the talks, the far-right one-man PVV party had remained on the position that not a penny should go to culture. BBB or VVD will then have shouted something about a very selective 'Dutch-oriented' subsidy policy. NSC did not want to touch the subsidies. So the VAT increase from 9 to 21 per cent (where neighbouring countries have it at 0) is a compromise dragged away from the gates of Wilders' hell. NSC does not want to have to talk about that anymore. 

Absolutely right

Anyway, Van Vroonhoven is quite right that voters of VVD, BBB and PVV consider their own culture less important than migration or the right to keep spraying nitrogen and exporting calves. Therefore, the argument that the sector should then put its hand in its own pockets worked like a red rag on the culture bulls in the room. And rightly so, because this argument possibly only applies to the so-called high art of certain men who happen to have just fallen into disgrace. Meanwhile, the sector as a whole employs 400,000 people, who - from community centres and carnival clubs to the Concertgebouw - are reminded every day of the need to be more engaged with audiences. 

It became clear from the two hours of culture service on this Sunday morning that politics will not be concerned at all with a cultural system in the coming cabinet period. Not to mention a new system for distributing money or the reasons why there should be arts policy. The incumbent parliamentary majority does not give a damn. 

Good deed

It also became clear that NSC struggles enormously with the position the party has chosen: as the sole guardian of morality, it is doggedly difficult not to be overwhelmed by the extremist smoke rising from the benches around you. Then you start seeing a draconian compromise as a good deed, as NSC is now doing. 

Then your party leader starts saying the same things as your cabinet colleagues, but slightly different. For example, about reproduction numbers of white people, to avoid the word "population 

This Sunday, September 1, two German states voted for a generous Alternative für Deutschland victory. The other parties refuse to cooperate with it. For now. 

Read also: