Finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem has added his voice to calls for an increase in corporate taxes in the Netherlands.

Writing in the AD 2.5 months before the next general election, Dijsselbloem said an increase is necessary ‘to restore the balance between ordinary Dutch people and international companies, and between workers and those with assets’.

Dijsselbloem is number three on the Labour party’s list of parliamentary candidates and stressed in he wrote the article as a potential MP, not as a minister.

Social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher, who is leading the Labour party’s election campaign, made a similar call at the end of last year.

At the end of November, Dijsselbloem told business broadcaster RTL Z that he favoured cutting corporate taxes to boost the Netherlands’ competitiveness as a location for international business. This could only be done if steps are taken to reduce tax avoidance, the minister said.

The maximum tax on corporate profits in the Netherlands is currently 25%.

The AD points out that the Labour party manifesto calls for a EU minimum corporate tax rate, not a rise in the Dutch one.