First Rutte cabinet
First Rutte cabinet | |
|---|---|
 68th Cabinet of the Netherlands | |
 | |
| Date formed | October 14, 2010 |
| Date dissolved | November 5, 2012 |
| People and organisations | |
| Head of state | Beatrix of the Netherlands |
| Head of government | Mark Rutte |
| Deputy head of government | Maxime Verhagen |
| No. of ministers | 12 |
| Ministers removed | 1 |
| Total no. of members | 13 |
| Member party | People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) |
| History | |
| Election | Dutch general election, 2010 |
| Outgoing election | Dutch general election, 2012 |
| Legislature terms | 2010-2012 |
| Incoming formation | 2010 Dutch cabinet formation |
| Outgoing formation | 2012 Dutch cabinet formation |
| Predecessor | Fourth Balkenende cabinet |
| Successor | Second Rutte cabinet |
| Part of the Politics series |
![Azure, billetty Or a lion with a coronet Or armed and langued Gules holding in his dexter paw a sword Argent hilted Or and in the sinister paw seven arrows Argent pointed and bound together Or. [The seven arrows stand for the seven provinces of the Union of Utrecht.] The shield is crowned with the (Dutch) royal crown and supported by two lions Or armed and langued gules. They stand on a scroll Azure with the text (Or) "Je Maintiendrai" (French for "I will maintain".)](/wiki/File:State_coat_of_arms_of_the_Netherlands.svg) |
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 Politics portal |
The First Rutte cabinet, also called the Rutte-Verhagen cabinet,[1] is the previous Dutch coalition cabinet formed by the political parties People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).
VVD party leader Mark Rutte was Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Maxime Verhagen was Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands on behalf of the CDA.[2][3]
The cabinet succeeded the fourth Balkenende cabinet following the Dutch general election of 2010, and was installed by Queen Beatrix on 14 October 2010.
The coalition was a minority cabinet, but as it was supported by the Party for Freedom (PVV), it had a small majority in the House of Representatives of the Netherlands until 20 March 2012, the day Hero Brinkman left the PVV. Although Brinkman has stated he would continue supporting the minority cabinet as an independent, the PVV withdrew it support on 21 April 2012 as negotiations on new austerity measures collapsed, paving the way for early elections.[4]
Formation
Following the collapse of the fourth Balkenende cabinet on 20 February 2010, elections for the House of Representatives were held on 9 June 2010. As usual in Dutch politics, none of the parties had a majority and several informateurs were appointed to investigate the formation of a coalition cabinet. A broad coalition consisting of VVD, CDA and the Labour Party (PvdA) was briefly looked at, but dismissed. Then negotiations for a "purple plus" coalition consisting of VVD, PvdA, Democrats 66 (D66) and GreenLeft (GL) lasted for about three weeks, but the parties could not reach agreement on the amount of budget cuts. Finally, a construction which is rare for the Netherlands was investigated: a minority coalition consisting of VVD and CDA (together 52 out of 150 seats in the House of Representatives), supported in parliament by the PVV (24 seats), to make the smallest possible majority of 76 seats. The reason for this construction was that parties agreed that the largest party (VVD) and the largest winner in the elections (PVV) needed to be in power; only the CDA could or wanted to help make a majority, but they were against forming a proper coalition with PVV because of their different views on Islam and immigration. Therefore, negotiations were held to form a coalition agreement between VVD and CDA, and to form a "parliamentary support agreement" between all three parties, which were successfully finished on 30 September 2010.
The opposition parties expected that the coalition would prove to be unstable[5] because at a special CDA conference, about a third of the CDA members voted against the formation of this cabinet. Also, in the CDA parliamentary fraction at least two people indicated they have difficulties with the cabinet, but say they will support it because the majority of the party approves of the cabinet.
When the cabinet took office, the three parties had a minority in the Senate of the Netherlands of 35 out of 75 seats. The parties hoped this would change following the May 2011 elections for the Senate, but they obtained 37 seats, one short of a majority. However, it is expected that the small Christian party SGP, which obtained one seat, will support the cabinet in the Senate.[6]
Withdrawal of support of the PVV
Because of the financial crisis in the Netherlands and because of the rules of the European Union that the deficit should be maximum 3%, the CDA (Maxime Verhagen), the VVD (Mark Rutte), and the PVV (Geert Wilders) decided to talk with each other about new, severe austerity measures, worth about 14 billion Euro. The negotiations about the measures lasted 7 weeks and ended on 21 April when Geert Wilders walked out of the negotiations. The reason he gave was that the measure would negatively impact people who receive benefits from the Dutch pension act.[7][8]
Both Rutte and Verhagen blamed Wilders for the failure of the negotiations.
As a result, the government resigned. General national elections were held on 12 September 2012.[9]
Composition
The cabinet consists of 12 ministers and 8 junior ministers (state secretaries). These positions are divided equally among the coalition members, regardless of their respective size: People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (31 seats in parliament) supplied 6 ministers and 4 state secretaries, and Christian Democratic Appeal (21 seats) also supplied 6 ministers and 4 state secretaries.
The number of ministers and state secretaries was reduced from the previous cabinet by merging several ministries: the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality was merged with the Ministry of Economic Affairs to form the new Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation; the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment was merged with the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management to form the new Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment; some tasks of the Ministry of the Interior went to the Ministry of Justice, which was renamed the Ministry of Security and Justice. Also the ministers without portfolio for Development Cooperation, for Youth and Family, and for Housing, Neighbourhoods and Integration were scrapped, the latter to be replaced by a minister without portfolio for Immigration and Asylum.
On December 16, 2011 Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Piet Hein Donner resigned after he was selected as the new Vice President of the Council of State succeeding Herman Tjeenk Willink, he was replaced as Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations by fellow Christian Democratic Appeal party member Liesbeth Spies.[10][11][12][13]
| Position | Portfolio | Name | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Prime Minister | General Affairs | Mark Rutte | VVD |
| Deputy Prime Minister / Minister |
Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation | Maxime Verhagen | CDA | |
 |
Minister | Interior and Kingdom Relations | Liesbeth Spies | CDA |
 |
Minister | Foreign Affairs | Uri Rosenthal | VVD |
 |
Minister | Finance | Jan Kees de Jager | CDA |
 |
Minister | Security and Justice | Ivo Opstelten | VVD |
 |
Minister | Defence | Hans Hillen | CDA |
 |
Minister | Education, Culture and Science | Marja van Bijsterveldt | CDA |
 |
Minister | Infrastructure and the Environment | Melanie Schultz van Haegen | VVD |
 |
Minister | Health, Welfare and Sport | Edith Schippers | VVD |
 |
Minister | Social Affairs and Employment | Henk Kamp | VVD |
 |
Minister without portfolio | Minister for Immigration, Integration and Asylum Affairs (within Interior and Kingdom Relations) |
Gerd Leers | CDA |
 |
State Secretary* | Foreign Affairs (European cooperation and Development cooperation) |
Ben Knapen | CDA |
 |
State Secretary | Finance (Fiscal affairs, Finances of lower governments) |
Frans Weekers | VVD |
 |
State Secretary | Security and Justice (Prevention, Family law, Youth justice, Copyright law) |
Fred Teeven | VVD |
 |
State Secretary* | Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation (Agriculture, Nature, Food quality, Trade, Tourism, Postal affairs) |
Henk Bleker | CDA |
 |
State Secretary | Education, Culture and Science (Higher education, Science and Knowledge, Teachers, Culture) |
Halbe Zijlstra | VVD |
 |
State Secretary | Infrastructure and the Environment (Water policy, Environment, Aviation) |
Joop Atsma | CDA |
 |
State Secretary | Social Affairs and Employment (Unemployment insurances (partial), Equality, Long-term unemployment, Poverty, Health and Safety) |
Paul de Krom | VVD |
 |
State Secretary | Health, Welfare and Sport (Nursing and care, Elderly policy, Youth policy, Biotechnology) |
Marlies Veldhuijzen van Zanten-Hyllner | CDA |
| * The state secretaries for Foreign Affairs and for Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation are allowed to use a ministerial title while on foreign business. | ||||
| Source: (NOS) | ||||
References
- ^ Template:Nl icon Kabinet-Rutte-Verhagen Rijksoverheid.nl
- ^ Template:Nl icon 'Ministersposten kabinet-Rutte verdeeld'
- ^ Template:Nl icon Kabinet Rutte-Verhagen: Vrijheid en Verantwoordelijkheid
- ^ "Dutch prime minister says government austerity talks collapse". The Washington Post. Associated Press. April 21, 2012. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- ^ "Oppositie verwacht instabiel kabinet". Trouw. 5 October 2010. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
- ^ Trouw, Kabinet kan door met gedoogsteun van SGP
- ^ "Wilders wil nieuwe verkiezingen- 'hoe eerder, hoe beter'". NRC Handelsblad. April 21, 2012. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- ^ "Dutch prime minister says government austerity talks collapse". The Washington Post. Associated Press. April 21, 2012. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- ^ "Niets staat verkiezingen op 12 september meer in de weg". De Volkskrant. April 25, 2012. Retrieved April 25, 2012.
- ^ Template:Nl icon 'Spies volgt Donner op in kabinet' NU.nl
- ^ Template:Nl icon Benoeming Spies tot minister vrijdag verwacht NOS
- ^ Piet Hein Donner tipped for Council of State job DutchNews
- ^ Template:Nl icon Donner naar Raad van State NOS
See also
External links
