Fourth Balkenende cabinet

Fourth Balkenende cabinet
67th cabinet of the Netherlands
Date formed	22 February 2007
Date dissolved	20 February 2010 (Replaced on 14 October 2010)
People and organisations
Head of government	Jan Pieter Balkenende
Head of state	Beatrix of the Netherlands
Member party	Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) Labour Party (PvdA) ChristianUnion (CU)
History
Election(s)	2006 election
Outgoing election	Dutch general election, 2010
Incoming formation	2006-2007
Outgoing formation	2010
Predecessor	Balkenende III
Successor	Rutte I

The fourth Balkenende cabinet or Balkenende IV was a Dutch coalition cabinet formed by the political parties Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), Labour Party (PvdA), and ChristianUnion (CU). The cabinet succeeded the third Balkenende cabinet following the 2006 election, and was installed by Queen Beatrix on 22 February 2007. It was named Balkenende IV after Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. The cabinet, which was scheduled to be in office until 2011, collapsed on 20 February 2010 when the Labour Party ministers resigned over differences on whether to extend the country's military mission in Afghanistan. Balkenende lost the general election in June 2010, when he resigned as PM and from his parliamentary seat. On 14 October 2010, the cabinet was succeeded by the first Rutte cabinet of Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Formation

Main articles: Dutch general election, 2006 and 2006–2007 Dutch cabinet formation

Pie chart showing the number of seats in the House of Representatives held by parties in the Balkenende IV Cabinet (CDA, PVDA, CU)

The coalition cabinet Balkenende II collapsed on 29 June 2006 after the political party Democrats 66 (D66) withdrew their support for the coalition. The political parties Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) formed the minority cabinet Balkenende III, which was installed on 7 July 2006, and early general elections were held on 22 November 2006. After the elections the Christian Democratic Appeal remained the largest party, while the Socialist Party (SP), the Party for Freedom (PVV), the ChristianUnion (CU), and the Party for the Animals (PvdD) gained seats in the new House of Representatives.

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands appointed Rein Jan Hoekstra as informateur. He 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 of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), the Labour Party (PvdA), and the ChristianUnion (CU). Together these three parties had 79 seats out of 150 seats in the House of Representatives. In the second information round Herman Wijffels was the informateur to negotiate between the Jan Peter Balkenende (CDA), Wouter Bos (PvdA), and André Rouvoet (CU) to reach a coalition agreement. The motto of the agreement they reached on 7 February 2007 was "Samen leven, samen werken" ("Living together, working together").

The appointment of Jan Peter Balkenende as formateur by the Queen on 9 February 2007 was the start of the cabinet formation. Four days later on 13 February a preliminary composition of the cabinet was announced.

On 22 February the cabinet members were sworn in by Queen Beatrix.

Fall

During the night between 19 and 20 February 2010, after 16 hours of deliberation, it became clear that coalition partners PvdA and CDA had insufficient confidence in each other. As a result, Balkenende will deliver the letters of resignation of the Labour party ministers to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands once the Queen returns from holiday in Lech am Arlberg. He will also offer the positions of the other ministers to the Queen. It is unclear what will happen afterward; possibilities include a demissionary cabinet or a so-called rump cabinet, a minority government. Either option will be a care taker cabinet awaiting early general elections.

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. Coalition party PvdA strongly opposed the extension of the mission. 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 and led to its fall in the early morning of 20 February.

After the resignation of the Labour Party, Balkenende also offered to the Dutch Queen the resignations of the 12 cabinet positions held by his own party CDA and the three held by the smaller CU. Ministers of these two parties would take over the posts previously held by Labour ministers until a new government is formed. Labour leader Wouter Bos, who resigned as deputy prime minister and finance minister, announced that he wanted to continue to lead his party. The Deputy Prime Minister André Rouvoet expected that the CDA and the CU would form a caretaker government until new parliamentary elections, that were expected in May or June 2010. 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.

According to opinion polls the Christian Democrats would win a new election, but then face difficulty in finding three coalition partners to establish a majority government. A poll by Maurice de Hond on 14 February 2010 put the CDA on 27 seats, followed by the Freedom Party (PVV) on 25 seats and the Liberal Party (VVD) on 22 seats. According to a new opinion poll held after the fall of the cabinet, the Labour Party could expect to win 19 seats in a general election, the CDA 26, but it would stay the biggest party

Aftermath

On 23 February 2010 Queen Beatrix accepted the resignation of the PvdA ministers, and maintained the remaining ministers to run a demissionary cabinet until the general elections. Early elections were held on 9 June 2010. The cabinet formation started a day later.

Composition

The cabinet consisted of 16 ministers and 11 junior ministers (staatssecretaris). These positions were divided among the coalition members according to their size in parliament: CDA supplied 8 ministers and 4 junior ministers, PvdA 6 ministers and 6 junior ministers, and ChristianUnion supplied 2 ministers and 1 junior minister.

Position		Portfolio	Name	Party
	Prime Minister	General Affairs	Jan Peter Balkenende	CDA
	Deputy Prime Minister / Minister Resigned 20 February 2010	Finance	Wouter Bos	PvdA
	Deputy Prime Minister / Minister without Portfolio	Youth and Family (within Health, Welfare and Sport) Caretaker minister for Education, Culture and Science from 23 February 2010	André Rouvoet	CU
	Minister	Foreign Affairs	Maxime Verhagen	CDA
	Minister	Justice Caretaker minister Interior and Kingdom Relations from 23 February 2010	Ernst Hirsch Ballin	CDA
	Minister Resigned 20 February 2010	Interior and Kingdom Relations	Guusje ter Horst	PvdA
	Minister Resigned 20 February 2010	Education, Culture and Science	Ronald Plasterk	PvdA
	Minister	Defence Caretaker minister Housing, Neighbourhoods and Integration from 23 February 2010	Eimert van Middelkoop	CU
	Minister	Transport, Public Works and Water Management	Camiel Eurlings	CDA
	Minister	Economic Affairs	Maria van der Hoeven	CDA
	Minister	Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality	Gerda Verburg	CDA
	Minister	Social Affairs and Employment	Piet Hein Donner	CDA
	Minister	Health, Welfare and Sport	Ab Klink	CDA
	Minister Resigned 20 February 2010	Spatial Planning and Environment	Jacqueline Cramer	PvdA
	Minister without Portfolio Resigned 20 February 2010	Housing, Neighbourhoods and Integration (within Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment)	Eberhard van der Laan	PvdA
	Minister without Portfolio Resigned 20 February 2010	Development Cooperation (within Foreign Affairs)	Bert Koenders	PvdA
	State Secretary* Resigned 20 February 2010	Foreign Affairs (European Affairs)	Frans Timmermans	PvdA
	State Secretary* Resigned 20 February 2010	Economic Affairs (Foreign Trade)	Frank Heemskerk	PvdA
	State Secretary	Finance (Fiscal Affairs) Caretaker minister Finance from 23 February 2010	Jan Kees de Jager	CDA
	State Secretary Resigned 20 February 2010	Justice (Immigration)	Nebahat Albayrak	PvdA
	State Secretary	Interior and Kingdom Relations (Kingdom relations)	Ank Bijleveld	CDA
	State Secretary	Education, Culture and Science (Secondary Education)	Marja van Bijsterveldt	CDA
	State Secretary Resigned 20 February 2010	Education, Culture and Science (Childcare and Primary Education)	Sharon Dijksma	PvdA
	State Secretary Resigned 14 May 2010	Defence (Military personnel)	Jack de Vries	CDA
	State Secretary	Transport, Public Works and Water Management (Water Management) Caretaker minister Spatial Planning and Environment from 23 February 2010	Tineke Huizinga	CU
	State Secretary Resigned 20 February 2010	Social Affairs and Employment (Income Policy)	Jetta Klijnsma	PvdA
	State Secretary Resigned 20 February 2010	Health, Welfare and Sport (Care and Elderly)	Jet Bussemaker	PvdA
* The state secretaries for Foreign Affairs and Economic Affairs are allowed to use a ministerial title only while on foreign business. Their title then is minister of European Affairs and Foreign Trade respectively.
Source: Volkskrant profiles of all ministers and ministers and state secretaries on the official RVD site on the cabinet formation, except for Huizinga, who selected later nos.nl

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:

• An active and constructive role in the world, which is characterized by these policies:
  • Continued investments into the Joint Strike Fighter (as the CDA proposed).
  • The new cabinet is not in favour of a new referendum on the European Constitution, which was voted down in 2005, but will consider new initiatives (both the CDA and CU opposed the referendum initially).

• An innovative, competitive and entrepreneurial economy, which is characterized by these policies:
  • 1 billion increased spending on education (as all parties proposed).
  • Privatization of Schiphol airport is shelved (as the CU and the PvdA proposed).

• A durable environment, which is characterized by these policies:
  • 800 million euros additional spending on renewable energy (as both the PvdA and the CU proposed).
  • Pollution will be taxed more heavily (as both the PvdA and the CU proposed).
  • A tax on airline tickets totalling 350 million euros (as all parties proposed).
  • No new investments in nuclear energy (as the CU and the PvdA proposed).

• Social cohesion, which is characterized by these policies:
  • A reform of the system of basic state pensions: people who have private pensions of 15,000 euros and higher and who stop working before the age of 65 will pay an additional tax as of 2011. People who work beyond 65 receive tax breaks. This measure should guarantee an affordable basic state pension (AOW) despite trends in population ageing (a compromise between the PvdA, which wanted to tax all rich elderly and the CDA which wanted incentives to make people work longer).
  • Public social housing will not be liberalised, rent rates may be raised only in line with inflation (as the PvdA proposed).
  • The tax deduction on mortgage interest payments remains unchanged (as the CDA proposed).
  • Investments in problem areas in the large cities to make them "beautiful neighbourhoods" (as the PvdA proposed).
  • Re-implementation of the subsidized jobs-scheme for the unemployed (as the PvdA proposed).
  • Childcare spending totalling 700 million euros (free child care was a PvdA election promise and opposed by CDA).

• Safety, stability and respect, which is characterized by these policies:
  • Reduction of all crimes by 25%.
  • A ban on burqas and other face covering clothing for security reasons (as the CDA proposed).

• Government and a servile public sector
  • In response to opposition to extravagant wages earned by some top civil servants and top level managers of quangos, sometimes five times that of the prime minister, no one will be allowed an income greater than the prime minister's. In order to accomplish this, the prime minister's salary will be increased.
  • Cutting the number of civil servants to save 750 million euros.
  • Women seeking an abortion are to expect an additional waiting period between first consultation and actual procedure on top of the already mandatory five days waiting period (as the CU proposed).
  • Minor reforms of the health care-system, including the abolishment of the no claim and the re-inclusion of dental care into the basic insurance.
  • Increased taxation on cigarettes and liquor, smoke-free bars and restaurants by 2011.
  • A general pardon for asylum seekers who entered the Netherlands before the new Asylum Law came into effect (as both the CU and the PvdA proposed).
  • The coalition wants to have a budget surplus of 1% of the GDP by 2011 with a projected 2% annual economic growth (as all parties proposed).

External links

• (Dutch) Fourth Balkenende cabinet at the website of the Dutch government
• News related to Dutch government collapses over Afghanistan troops at Wikinews