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Fourth Balkenende cabinet

The fourth Balkenende cabinet was the executive branch of the Government of the Netherlands from 22 February 2007 until 14 October 2010. The cabinet was formed by the Christian-democratic Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and Christian Union (CU) and the social-democratic Labour Party (PvdA) after the election of 2006. The cabinet was a centrist grand coalition and had a slim majority in the House of Representatives with Christian Democratic Leader Jan Peter Balkenende serving as prime minister. Labour Leader Wouter Bos served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance while Social Christian Leader André Rouvoet served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister without Portfolio for Health, Welfare and Sport.

The cabinet served during the unstable late 2000s; domestically it had to deal with the financial crisis of 2008 and major reforms to the education system, while internationally, it had to deal with the war on terror and the government support for the Task Force Uruzgan. The cabinet suffered several major internal conflicts including multiple cabinet resignations. The cabinet fell prematurely on 20 February 2010 after the Labour Party refused to support an extension of the Task Force Uruzgan mission with the Labour Party cabinet members resigning on 23 February 2010, and the cabinet continued in a demissionary capacity until it was replaced after the election of 2010.

Formation

Following the fall of the Second Balkenende cabinet on 30 June 2006 the Democrats 66 (D66) left the coalition and the Christian Democratic Appeal and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) formed a rump cabinet. The Third Balkenende cabinet was installed on 7 July 2006 and served as a caretaker government until the election of 2006 on 22 November 2006. After the election the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) of incumbent Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende was the winner of the election but lost 3 seats and had now a total of 41 seats. The Labour Party (PvdA) of Wouter Bos lost 9 seats and had now 33 seats. The Socialist Party (SP) of Jan Marijnissen was the biggest winner with 16 new seats and had now 25 seats. Two new parties won representation in the House of Representatives, the recently founded Party for Freedom (PVV) of Geert Wilders, a former Member of the House of Representatives for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy won nine seats and the Party for the Animals (PvdD) of Marianne Thieme, a noted animal rights activist won two seats, the first time an animal advocacy party won representation in a national legislative body.

On 25 November 2006 Queen Beatrix appointed Member of the Council of State Rein Jan Hoekstra (CDA) as Informateur. Hoekstra explored the possibilities for the different three party coalitions, since no two parties could form a majority in the House of Representatives together. This resulted in a coalition agreement between the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), Labour Party (PvdA) and the Christian Union (CU), together these three parties had 79 seats out of 150 seats in the House of Representatives.[1]

On 20 December 2006 Queen Beatrix appointed former Chairman of the Social-Economic Council Herman Wijffels (CDA) as Informateur to start the second information round and negotiate a coalition agreement between the Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal Jan Peter Balkenende, the Leader of the Labour Party Wouter Bos and the Leader of the Christian Union André Rouvoet. On 7 February 2007 a coalition was reached with the motto of the agreement: "Samen leven, samen werken" ("Living together, working together"). On 9 February 2007 Queen Beatrix appointed incumbent Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende (CDA) as Formateur to start the last phase of the formation.[2] On 22 February the cabinet members were sworn in by Queen Beatrix.

Term

Policy

The coalition agreement titled "Living together, working together" was presented on 7 February in a press conference by Balkenende, Bos, Rouvoet. It is structured into six commitments of the new cabinet. If a proposal was included in a party's electoral manifesto, this is mentioned as well.[3][4]

Fall and aftermath

In February 2010, NATO had officially requested the Netherlands to extend its military involvement in Task Force Uruzgan, the ISAF operation in the Afghan province of Uruzgan, aimed at training Afghan security forces and transfer of responsibilities to the local authorities.[6][7][8] Coalition party PvdA strongly opposed the extension of the mission.[9][10][11] The collision between the government and the parliament, of which the majority disagreed with an extension of the mission, as well as between the coalition partners in the cabinet, threatened the existence of the cabinet[12] and led to its fall in the night between 19 and 20 February 2010, after 16 hours of deliberations between the cabinet members. The Labour members resigned from the cabinet.[13][14][15][16]

As queen Beatrix was on holiday in Austria (Lech am Arlberg) at the time, Balkenende informed her formally by phone about the break-up of the cabinet. She returned soon to The Hague and held consultations with advisors and with the leaders of all political groupings in parliament on 22 and 23 February. On the latter day, the queen accepted the resignations of the PvdA ministers and secretaries, and maintained the 15 remaining cabinet members of CDA and Christian Union (whose positions had also been offered to the queen for consideration, a customary procedure in the Netherlands) to run a demissionary cabinet (caretaker government), which meant that it could not make large decisions or proposals on topics deemed controversial. No new cabinet members were appointed, the already functioning ministers and state secretaries taking care of the empty positions until a new government would be formed. Early elections were held on 9 June 2010. The cabinet formation started a day later.[citation needed]

Labour leader Wouter Bos, who resigned as deputy prime minister and finance minister, announced that he wanted to continue to lead his party. Labour Party leader Bos denied that the upcoming local elections in the Netherlands played a role in the decision to refuse to compromise on a possible extension of the Dutch military mission in Afghanistan.[17]

Flemish Christian Democratic Leader Yves Leterme and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende at a European People's Party conference in Berlin on 24 March 2007.
Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of France François Fillon and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende at a European People's Party conference in Brussels on 21 June 2007.
Deputy Prime Minister Wouter Bos and United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the United States Department of State in Washington, D.C., on 23 October 2007.
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and President of the United States George W. Bush in the Oval Office on 5 June 2008.
Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende at a European People's Party conference in Warsaw on 29 April 2009.
American First Lady Michelle Obama, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and President of the United States Barack Obama at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on 23 September 2009.
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and President of France Nicolas Sarkozy at the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., on 14 April 2010.
President of Argentina Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende in Toronto on 10 June 2010.
Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and Prime Minister of Belgium Yves Leterme at a European People's Party conference in Meise on 16 June 2010.

Cabinet members

Resigned
Retained from the previous cabinet
Continued in the next cabinet
Designated with the diplomatic rank of Minister
Appointed as Minister of Finance
Appointed as Mayor of Ede
Appointed as Mayor of Rotterdam
Appointed as Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment

Trivia

References

  1. ^ "Balkenende clings to power as Dutch head for uneasy coalition". The Independent. 23 November 2006. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  2. ^ "Balkenende benoemd tot formateur" (in Dutch). NOS. 11 February 2007. Archived from the original on 11 February 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  3. ^ "Coalitieakkoord tussen de Tweede Kamerfracties van CDA, PvdA en ChristenUnie" (PDF) (in Dutch). NOS. 7 February 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 February 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  4. ^ "Hoofdpunten regeerakkoord" (in Dutch). NOS. 7 February 2007. Archived from the original on 9 February 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  5. ^ Overheid en dienstbare publieke sector
  6. ^ (in Dutch)"NAVO verzoekt nieuwe missie Afghanistan"
  7. ^ "NATO would like Dutch to train Afghan troops"
  8. ^ (in Dutch)"Kabinet onderzoekt langere missie Afghanistan"
  9. ^ "Nato troop request sparks political row"
  10. ^ (in Dutch)"Conflict naar climax: nog deze week Uruzgan-besluit"
  11. ^ "Labour says final 'no' to Afghanistan". DutchNews.nl. 17 February 2010. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  12. ^ "Will the Dutch government fall over troop deployment?"
  13. ^ (in Dutch)"Verklaring Balkenende na afloop ministerraad"
  14. ^ (in Dutch)"Kabinet-Balkenende IV gevallen"
  15. ^ ""Dutch government falls over Afghanistan mission"". Archived from the original on 23 February 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2010.
  16. ^ "Dutch Government Collapses Over Afghan Mission"
  17. ^ "Bos denies decision influenced by March poll"

External links

Official