Socialist Party leader Emile Roemer’s calls for a new health system in the Netherlands have been pulled apart by other parties at this start of this year’s parliamentary debates, reports RTL Nieuws.

After the budget presentation and king’s speech on Monday – known as Prinsjesdag in Dutch – the lower house holds two days of general debate, allowing each party to present alternative propositions.

This year’s debates are expected to be marked by especially sharp political point-scoring as the campaigning has begun for a general election in March 2017. Parties have already criticised what they called an over-optimistic king’s speech that did not address social divisions, after a budget the government claims will put more money in most people’s pockets.

Roemer argued for a new national healthcare fund, saying public money currently disappears into the pockets of bureaucrats and insurance companies. He also said policy excesses are too high and is calling for a lower statutory ‘own risk’ amount.

But other parties called for him to present credible figures. Alexander Pechtold, leader of the D66 Liberal democratic party, said: ‘If you come up with a budget, show your workings,’ joking that perhaps it depended on money from the garden gnomes.

Halbe Zijlstra, of the VVD ruling party, accused him of making healthcare more expensive per person and CDA Christian Democrats leader Sybrand Buma challenged him to produce figures not ‘vague words’.