Cabinet beam end II

The second cabinet, Balkenende, is the name of the government of the Netherlands under Jan Peter Balkenende , which was formed on May 27, 2003. It consisted of three parties: the Christian Democratisch Appèl (CDA), the Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD) and the Democrats 66 (D66). The cabinet came into being after the first cabinet of the CDA, LPF and VVD fell apart. This made new elections necessary.

On June 29, 2006, D66 announced its support for the coalition. The chamber members of D66 had previously supported a failed motion of censure against the Minister for Integration and Immigration Rita Verdonk (VVD) after she wanted to revoke the Dutch citizenship of the well-known Islam critic and chamber member Ayaan Hirsi Ali because of false information in her asylum procedure in 1992 . On June 30, Prime Minister Balkenende offered Queen Beatrix the resignation of the cabinet. On the advice of Parliament, the Queen proposed a minority government made up of CDA and VVD. This third cabinet beam end was deployed on July 7, 2006.

education

On January 24, 2003, Queen Beatrix asked the Minister of Justice of the previous coalition, Piet Hein Donner (CDA), to mediate in the coalition negotiations. The negotiations were long. Originally, the election winner, the Christian Democratic CDA, wanted to form a coalition with the right-wing liberal VVD. Without the support of a third party, this formation would not have had a majority in the Second Chamber of the States General . A partnership with Lijst Pim Fortuyn would have been unpopular with voters after the events of the First Balkenende cabinet and the left-wing liberals of D66 initially did not want to join the two-party alliance. A government supported by the conservative Christian parties SGP and CU was not approved by the VVD.

This was followed by lengthy negotiations between the CDA and the social democratic PvdA about a grand coalition. Both emerged from the elections almost equally strong. However, the negotiations were made more difficult by the different attitudes towards the Iraq war , the poor economic forecasts and the personal animosities of the two leading candidates, Balkenende (CDA) and Bos (PvdA). After a marathon of negotiations lasting several months, the talks were finally declared to have failed by Balkenende.

Now the MPs from D66 were finally ready to enter into a three-party coalition with CDA and VVD. The government relies on a slim majority of 78 of the 150 MPs in the Second Chamber. When VVD member Geert Wilders left his party in September 2004, this already narrow majority was further decimated.

composition

The government consisted of 16 ministers and 10 state secretaries. According to the size of the factions in parliament, the CDA provided 8 ministers (including the prime minister) and 5 state secretaries, the VVD 6 ministers and 4 state secretaries and D66 2 ministers and one state secretary. Of these, 18 members of the government were already active in the first cabinet at the end of the bar (marked with "*" in the table). The table uses the official German designation of the members of the government as used by the Dutch embassies.

minister

Business area	minister
Prime Minister, Minister for General Affairs	Jan Peter Balkenende * ( CDA )
Minister of Finance, Deputy Prime Minister	Gerrit Zalm ( VVD )
Minister for Economy	Laurens Jan Brinkhorst ( D66 ) - until June 30, 2006
Minister for Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations	Johan Remkes * (VVD)
Minister for Foreign Affairs	Jaap de Hoop Scheffer * (CDA) Bernard Bot (CDA) - since December 3, 2003
Minister of Justice	Piet Hein Donner * (CDA)
Minister for Education, Culture and Science	Maria van der Hoeven * (CDA)
Minister for Development Cooperation	Agnes van Ardenne * (CDA)
Minister for Health, Welfare and Sport	Hans Hoogervorst * (VVD)
Minister of Defense	Henk Kamp * (VVD)
Minister for Housing, Regional Planning and the Environment	Sybilla Dekker (VVD)
Minister of Transport, Water Management and Public Works	Karla Peijs (CDA)
Minister for Administrative Modernization and Kingdom Relations	Alexander Pechtold (D66) - until June 30, 2006
Minister for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality	Cees Veerman * (CDA)
Minister for Social Affairs and Labor	Aart Jan de Geus * (CDA)
Minister for Immigration and Integration	Rita Verdonk (VVD)

State Secretaries

Business area	State Secretary
Minister of State for European Affairs	Atzo Nicolaï * (VVD)
State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science	Annette Nijs * (VVD) Mark Rutte (VVD) - until June 26, 2006
State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science (Culture and Media)	Medy van der Laan (D66) - until June 30, 2006
State Secretary for Finance	Joop Wijn * (CDA)
Secretary of State for Defense	Cees van der Knaap * (CDA)
State Secretary for Housing, Regional Planning and the Environment	Pieter van Geel * (CDA)
State Secretary for Transport, Water Management and Public Works	Melanie Schultz van Haegen * (VVD)
State Secretary for Economic Affairs, officially abroad: Minister for Foreign Trade	Karien van Gennip (CDA)
State Secretary for Social Affairs and Labor	Mark Rutte * (VVD) - until June 17, 2004 , Henk van Hoof (VVD) - from June 17, 2004
State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport	Clémence Ross-Van Dorp * (CDA)

supporting documents

1. ^ Evalinde Eelens: Dutch Coalition Government Falls After D66 . Bloomberg.com, July 29, 2006.
2. ↑ The Dutch government  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   . Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, accessed November 24, 2006.

Web links

Commons : Kabinett Balkenende II  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files