First Balkenende cabinet

The first cabinet of Jan Peter Balkenende was in office in the Netherlands from July 22, 2002 until October 16 of the same year. The term of 87 days (counting the first and last days in full and excluding its "caretaker" function that continued for months afterwards) was the shortest since the fifth cabinet of Hendrikus Colijn[?] (July 25, 1939 - August 10, 1939).

After the May 15, 2002 elections the division of the 150 seats in the lower house (Tweede Kamer) was:

On May 17 Queen Beatrix appointed Piet Hein Donner[?], a CDA member of the Raad van Staat[?] as "informer", to investigate the possibilities for a new government. A coalition between CDA, LPF and VVD was established relatively quickly, despite some initial resistance by the VVD. By July 4 a detailed coalition agreement had been drawn up and the Queen appointed Jan Peter Balkenende, the lijsttrekker (head of the list of candidates) for the CDA, to form a new cabinet.

The cabinet was named on July 16 and was sworn in on July 22. The first departure from the new executive came a few hours later, when Philomena Bijlhout[?], the State Secretary for Social Affairs and Work Opportunity appointed by the LPF, resigned after evidence was presented that she had been a member of a militia of Desi Bouterse in Suriname in 1982 and 1983 for longer than she had previously declared.

The cabinet Balkenende-1 comprised 14 ministers and 14 state secretaries, with each post allocated to one of the coalition parties. Each of the ministers headed a department, with the exception of one "minister without a portfolio" to deal with "foreigners policy and integration", accommodated by the Ministry of Justice.

In the months following the election, the recently established LPF was beset by power struggles between various factions. This came to a head in October 2002 with a dispute between the cabinet ministers Eduard Bomhoff and Herman Heinsbroek. On October 15 Balkenende asked both to resign from the cabinet, with the LPF faction in parliament making a similar request. On October 16 Bomhoff and Heinsbroek resigned. However party leaders Gerrit Zalm[?] of the VVD and Maxime Verhagen[?] of the CDA said they no longer had confidence in the cabinet. Balkenende announced the resignation of the cabinet on the same day.

Meetings with the Queen did not take place until the week after the resignation, since she had attended the funeral of her husband Claus von Amsberg on October 15 and had travelled to Italy immediately afterwards. On October 21 she accepted the resignation and new elections were called for January 22, 2003. The cabinet remained in place as a "caretaker" administration, without Bomhoff and Heinsbroek, until the elections and formation of a new cabinet.

On December 12, 2002, Benk Korthals[?] resigned as caretaker Minister of Defence after a commission of inquiry into building industry fraud accused him of giving false information to the Lower House during the previous cabinet. After resigning he said he still denied the allegations.

Cabinet actions

• Revoked a planned ban on mink farming initiated by the previous cabinet Telegraaf 2002-10-10 (http://archief.telegraaf.nl/artikel.fpl?id=277339&pagina=0)
• Approved an expansion of the European Union.
• Support for the United States in its plan to invade Iraq.
• Cuts to a subsidised jobs scheme of Ad Melkert[?], the Melkertbanen.
• Reorganisation of defence (and budget cuts?) involving 4800 job losses www.regering.nl 2002-12-02 (http://www.regering.nl/actueel/nieuwsarchief/2002/12December/02/42_11953.jsp?ComponentID=11953)
• Reduction of spending on public transport of 39 million euros in 2003 (originally to be 60 million) www.regering.nl 2002-11-19 (http://www.regering.nl/actueel/nieuwsarchief/2002/11November/19/42_11623.jsp?ComponentID=11623)
• Cuts to the budgets of most government departments, but with increased spending in some areas.

Ministers

State Secretaries

(*) Alternative title that can be used outside the Netherlands.

(sources: http://www.volkskrant.nl/1026900268305, http://www.minaz.nl/ministerraad/kabinet_1945/index and the report of Balkenende to the Queen from http://www.minaz.nl/kabinetsformatie/).

See also:

• Politics of the Netherlands
• Lijst Pim Fortuyn (covers in detail reasons for breakup)