Second Kok cabinet

The Second cabinet of Wim Kok was the government of the Netherlands headed by Prime Minister Wim Kok during 1998 to 2002.

After the elections to the House of Representatives on 6 May 1998, the allocation of the 150 seats was:

Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA)	45
Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD)	38
Christen Democratisch Appèl (CDA)	29
Democraten 66 (D66)	14
GroenLinks (GL)	11
Socialistische Partij (SP)	5
ChristenUnie (CU)	5
Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij (SGP)	3

ChristenUnie was formed from the combination of two parties, GPV and RPF, which had contested the elections separately.

The new cabinet was the successor of the first cabinet of Wim Kok and was formed from the same coalition of PvdA, VVD and D66. It was also known as the 'tweede paarse kabinet' ('second purple cabinet') called such because it contained both the social-democratic PvdA (red) and the liberal VVD (blue). The aim of the cabinet was to continue the policy of cabinet Kok I, which was concerned with economizing, tax reduction and making an end to unemployment. Wim Kok was the prime minister, Annemarie Jorritsma as the vice-prime minister for the VVD, and Els Borst for D66. The cabinet was considered boring, because both left-wing and right-wing political parties were a part of it. There was no strong opposition in the parliament.

The cabinet completed processes of liberalisation which were started by the previous cabinet: the legalisation of prostitution in 2000, same-sex marriage in 2001 and Euthanasia in 2002.

This cabinet was notable for resigning twice. The first time was in May 1999, when D66 stepped out of the coalition when proposed legislation entered by this party was blocked; through negotiations the crisis was solved and the cabinet stayed together. The second and final time was on 16 April 2002, just one month before the next election, when prime minister Kok wished to resign over the NIOD report into the genocide of Srebrenica in 1995 and the other ministers had no choice but to follow him. The Second Kok cabinet remained in place as a caretaker cabinet until 22 July 2002, when it was replaced by the first Balkenende cabinet.

Ministers			Title/Portfolio		Term of office	Party
style="background:Template:Labour Party (Netherlands)/meta/color;"\|		Wim Kok (born 1938)	Prime Minister	General Affairs	22 August 1994 – 22 July 2002	Labour Party
style="background:Template:People's Party for Freedom and Democracy/meta/color;"\|		Annemarie Jorritsma (born 1950)	Deputy Prime Minister / Minister	Economic Affairs	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
style="background:Template:Democrats 66/meta/color;"\|		Els Borst (1932–2014)	Deputy Prime Minister / Minister	Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport	22 August 1994 – 22 July 2002	Democrats 66
style="background:Template:Labour Party (Netherlands)/meta/color;"\|		Bram Peper (born 1940)	Minister	Interior and Kingdom Relations	3 August 1998 – 13 March 2000 ^[Res]	Labour Party
style="background:Template:Democrats 66/meta/color;"\|		Roger van Boxtel (born 1954)			13 March 2000 – 24 March 2000 ^{[Ad interim]}	Democrats 66
style="background:Template:Labour Party (Netherlands)/meta/color;"\|		Klaas de Vries (born 1943)			24 March 2000 – 22 July 2002	Labour Party
style="background:Template:People's Party for Freedom and Democracy/meta/color;"\|		Jozias van Aartsen (born 1947)	Minister	Foreign Affairs	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
style="background:Template:People's Party for Freedom and Democracy/meta/color;"\|		Gerrit Zalm (born 1952)	Minister	Finance	22 August 1994 – 22 July 2002	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
style="background:Template:People's Party for Freedom and Democracy/meta/color;"\|		Benk Korthals (born 1944)	Minister	Justice	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
style="background:Template:People's Party for Freedom and Democracy/meta/color;"\|		Frank de Grave (born 1955)	Minister	Defence	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
style="background:Template:People's Party for Freedom and Democracy/meta/color;"\|		Loek Hermans (born 1951)	Minister	Education, Culture and Science	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
style="background:Template:Labour Party (Netherlands)/meta/color;"\|		Tineke Netelenbos (born 1944)	Minister	Transport, Public Works and Water Management	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	Labour Party
style="background:Template:Democrats 66/meta/color;"\|	Haijo Apotheker	Haijo Apotheker (born 1950)	Minister	Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries	3 August 1998 – 7 June 1999 ^[Res]	Democrats 66
style="background:Template:Democrats 66/meta/color;"\|		Laurens Jan Brinkhorst (born 1937)	Minister	Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries	7 June 1999 – 22 July 2002	Democrats 66
style="background:Template:Labour Party (Netherlands)/meta/color;"\|		Klaas de Vries (born 1943)	Minister	Social Affairs and Employment	3 August 1998 24 March 2000 ^[Appt]	Labour Party
style="background:Template:Labour Party (Netherlands)/meta/color;"\|		Willem Vermeend (born 1948)	Minister	Social Affairs and Employment	24 March 2000 – 22 July 2002	Labour Party
style="background:Template:Labour Party (Netherlands)/meta/color;"\|		Jan Pronk (born 1940)	Minister	Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	Labour Party
Ministers without portfolio			Title/Portfolio/Ministry		Term of office	Party
style="background:Template:Democrats 66/meta/color;"\|		Roger van Boxtel (born 1954)	Minister	Urban Policy and Integration (within Interior and Kingdom Relations)	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	Democrats 66
style="background:Template:Labour Party (Netherlands)/meta/color;"\|		Eveline Herfkens (born 1952)	Minister	Development Cooperation (within Foreign Affairs)	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	Labour Party
Source: Template:Nl icon Kabinet-Kok II Rijksoverheid

^Appt Appointment: De Vries appointed Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.

^Res Resigned.

^{Ad interim} Van Boxtel served ad interim following the resignation of Peper.

Undersecretaries

See also Undersecretaries for a detailed description of the function.

Foreign Affairs: Dick Benschop (PvdA)
Justice
- Job Cohen (PvdA), resigned December 31, 2000
- Ella Kalsbeek, 2 January 2001
Interior and Kingdom Affairs Gijs de Vries (VVD)
Education, Culture and Sciences
- Karin Adelmund (PvdA)
- Rick van der Ploeg (PvdA)
Finance
- Willem Vermeend (PvdA), resigned March 24, 2000
- Wouter Bos (PvdA), from March 24, 2000
Defense: Henk van Hoof (VVD)
Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment: Johan Remkes (VVD)
Transport and Water Monique de Vries (VVD)
Economy Gerrit Ybema (D66)
Agriculture, Nature Management and Fishery Geke Faber (PvdA)
Social Affairs and Employment
- Hans Hoogervorst (VVD)
- Annelies Verstand (D66)
Public health, Wellbeing and Sports: Margo Vliegenthart (PvdA)

v t e Second Kok cabinet (1998–2002)
Preceded by: First Kok cabinet Succeeded by: First Balkenende cabinet
Prime Minister	Wim Kok (General Affairs)
Deputy Prime Ministers	Annemarie Jorritsma (Economic Affairs) Els Borst (Health, Welfare and Sport)
Ministers	Bram Peper (Interior and Kingdom Relations) (1998–2000) Roger van Boxtel (Interior and Kingdom Relations) (Ad interim) Klaas de Vries (Interior and Kingdom Relations) (from 2000) Jozias van Aartsen (Foreign Affairs) Gerrit Zalm (Finance) Benk Korthals (Justice) Frank de Grave (Defence) Klaas de Vries (Social Affairs and Employment) (1998–2000) Willem Vermeend (Social Affairs and Employment) (from 2000) Loek Hermans (Education, Culture and Science) Tineke Netelenbos (Transport and Water Management) Haijo Apotheker (Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries) (1998–1999) Klaas de Vries (Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries) (Ad interim) Laurens Jan Brinkhorst (Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries) (from 1999) Jan Pronk (Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment)
Ministers without portfolio	Roger van Boxtel (Integration and Urban Planning) Eveline Herfkens (Development Cooperation)
State Secretaries	Gijs de Vries (Interior and Kingdom Relations) Dick Benschop (Foreign Affairs) Willem Vermeend (Finance) (1998–2000) Wouter Bos (Finance) (from 2000) Job Cohen (Justice) (1998–2001) Ella Kalsbeek (Justice) (from 2001) Gerrit Ybema (Economic Affairs) Henk van Hoof (Defence) Margo Vliegenthart (Health, Welfare and Sport) Hans Hoogervorst (Social Affairs and Employment) Annelies Verstand (Social Affairs and Employment) Karin Adelmund (Education, Culture and Science) Rick van der Ploeg (Education, Culture and Science) Monique de Vries (Transport and Water Management) Geke Faber (Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries) Johan Remkes (Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment)