After the general election of 9 June 2010, a cabinet formation took place in Netherlands. This led to the swearing in of the First Rutte cabinet after 127 days. The cabinet consisted of the conservative liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), with confidence and supply from the radical right Party for Freedom (PVV).
The formation started with an exploration by informateur Uri Rosenthal and later Herman Tjeenk Willink. Negotiations took place for a purple plus coalition consisting of VVD, Labour Party (PvdA), Democraten 66 (D66) and GroenLinks. Despite advanced talks led by Rosenthal and Jacques Wallage, the talks ended on 20 July.
Informateur Ruud Lubbers then explored a cabinet of VVD and CDA with confidence and supply from PVV. This was negotiated under informateur Ivo Opstelten. Within the CDA parliamentary group there were dissidents against cooperation with the PVV, which caused the PVV to stop the negotiations. Under Tjeenk Willink it was concluded that after the resignation of dissident Ab Klink, the PVV wanted to negotiate again. This was completed on 28 September under the mediation by Opstelten. The parliamentary groups agreed to the agreement, as did the CDA formation conference. Under formateur Mark Rutte, VVD and CDA selected ministers and state secretaries, who were sworn in on 14 October.
Background Election results
In the elections, the VVD, led by Mark Rutte, became the largest party with 31 seats. The party was closely followed by the PvdA with 30 seats. The CDAthe largest party for the previous eight yearshalved from 41 to 20 seats. Due to the major loss, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende resigned as CDA party leader and was succeeded as party leader by Maxime Verhagen. The big winner was the PVV of Geert Wilders, which rose from 9 to 24 seats.
Informateur Rosenthal
The day after the elections, queen Beatrix met with her permanent advisors; the chairmen of the Senate and the House of Representatives, respectively René van der Linden and Gerdi Verbeet, and the vice president of the Council of State, Herman Tjeenk Willink. Most parliamentary leaders advised her a day later to appoint an informateur of the VVD to investigate a cabinet of VVD, PVV and CDA. On the recommendation of Rutte, VVD parliamentary group leader in the Senate Uri Rosenthal was appointed informateur. His assignment was, "partly in view of the difficult situation our country is in", to investigate in the short term the possibilities for a cabinet "of which the largest party and the biggest winner" are a part. Rosenthal and later informateurs were assisted by advisorsincluding Kajsa Ollongrenand the director of the Government Information Service .
On 14 June, Rosenthal received the parliamentary leaders. Rutte preferred a coalition of VVD, PVV and CDA, which was the only option for Wilders. Verhagen indicated that the CDA "beholds modesty" when it came to cabinet participation. Verhagen also wanted VVD and PVV to first negotiate the main points before CDA could possibly join. Something that was rejected by Wilders in particular. Except for the Political Reformed Party (SGP), all other parties considered participation in a cabinet with PVV unlikely or ruled it out. Because Verhagen persisted after two more conversations, Rosenthal concluded this information attempt with a report to the queen.
Rosenthal then entered into separate discussions with Rutte, Verhagen, PvdA-leader Job Cohen, D66-leader Alexander Pechtold and GroenLinks-leader Femke Halsema to explore a coalition with their parties. PvdA, D66 and GroenLinks preferred purple plus, consisting of those parties plus VVD. Rutte was not in favor of this coalition due to "major programmatic differences" and concluded after two days of discussions "that there is no perspective for negotiations at the moment".
Rutte's second preference, a middle coalition of VVD, PvdA and CDA, was then explored. Verhagen showed himself willing to participate in discussions "in the national interest", but the option was "undesirable" for PvdA leader Job Cohen. Cohen only wanted to participate in the discussion if D66 and GroenLinks joined (also known as the Rainbow Coalition). This option was not supported by Halsema and Pechtold. Cohen also withdrew the option within an hour. SP leader Emile Roemer suggested a coalition of PvdA, CDA, SP and GroenLinks, but this was rejected by the other leaders. After these failed attempts, Rosenthal sent his final report on 25 June in which he recommended appointing a VVD and a PvdA informateur to find options for a cabinet within the 'broad political centre'.
Informateur Tjeenk Willink
Following Rosenthal's final report, the queen was advised on 25 June by the parliamentary leaders of 'the broad centre' (VVD, PvdA, CDA, D66, GroenLinks). This did not lead to a clear direction. That same evening, the queen appointed Herman Tjeenk Willink as informateur with the task of informing her "at short notice about the steps that need to be taken to achieve the formation of a cabinet that can count on fruitful cooperation with the States General". On 28 June, Tjeenk Willink met with his predecessor Rosenthal and with the party leaders of the broad centre. Tjeenk Willink's preference for a coalition of those five parties, with an not too detailed agreement and with party leaders in the House, was rejected.
The debate with former informateur Rosenthal took place on 29 June. The subject of the debate was mainly why a cabinet with VVD, PVV and CDA had not proven possible. CDA had not ruled out governing with PVV in the campaign. Verhagen gave the reason for the refusal as "major differences in principle [...] with regard to the democratic constitutional state". Verhagen reiterated that VVD and PVV first had to jointly agree on Wilders' positions such as "head rag tax, the banning of the Koran and the fight against Islam" before CDA joined. Rutte embraced this proposal and invited Wilders seven times during the debate, but Wilders refused.
After a new round of discussions with the five party leaders from the broad centre, Tjeenk Willink once again examined purple plus. Rutte stated that he was willing to discuss this if Cohen lifted his blockade against the middle coalition. Cohen then lifted that blockade. The party leaders of purple-plus met secretly at Tjeenk Willink's home on 1 and 2 July and concluded that the coalition was feasible. VVD and PvdA put forward Rosenthal and Jacques Wallage respectively for the negotiations as informateurs. D66 and GroenLinks advocated alternatives, but ultimately resigned themselves to these informateurs. However, the condition was that both informateurs would not be allowed to take a seat in a possible purple-plus cabinet. On 5 July Tjeenk Willink published his final report with the advice to negotiate about purple-plus.
Tjeenk Willink had written an appendix to his final report in a personal capacity. In it he wrote, among other things, about the integration of foreigners and about European cooperation in the field of police and justice. Wilders thought this was inappropriate for an informateur. He indicated that he no longer wanted Tjeenk Willink as an informateur in the future and inquired whether Tjeenk Willink could be removed as vice-president of the Council of State.
Informateurs Rosenthal and Wallage
The queen took Tjeenk Willink's advice and appointed Rosenthal and Wallage as informateurs on 5 July. The negotiators agreed to maintain 'radio silence' towards the press and public.
On 12 July, the informateurs spoke to the press and spoke of a "pleasant atmosphere" and a "remarkably good mutual understanding". Especially the atmosphere between contemporaries Rutte, Pechtold and Halsema was excellent and sometimes jolly, according to Halsema in her memoirs. The relationship between the two informateurs, on the other hand, was worse and they were accused of poor direction.
In terms of content, a lot of progress was made at the beginning. The coalition agreement had to be limited in scope and leave room for "free issues", where parliamentary groups could choose for themselves. The cabinet would consist of eight ministers and be housed at the Catshuis. The twelve state secretaries then had to run the departments. Agreement was also reached on reforms to the tax system, labour dismissal law, the Dutch Unemployment Act and cuts in housing construction and defense. The differences also appeared to be bridgeable in the areas of immigration and integration.
However, further relaxation of the labour dismissal law and reform of the home mortgage interest deduction were blocked by PvdA and VVD respectively, as a result of which negotiations stalled. There was also no agreement on the total cuts. Rutte had promised major cuts in his election manifesto and set a minimum of 18 billion in the negotiations, which was not achieved. On Friday 16 July, negotiators and informateurs noted that no progress had been made. It was decided to have a weekend break.
That weekend, Rutte updated his party leadership about negotiations. He received support from the party leadership, despite the fact that 'purple-plus' was not their first preference. However, party prominents such as Hans Wiegel and Henk Vonhoff turned against purple-plus. In the polls, the VVD dropped to 23 seats, while the PVV rose to 35 seats.
On Monday it was concluded that the break had not brought any new insights. The next day, Pechtold commented to Halsema: "Rutte is wearing a tie and a clean shirt and has no paper with him. He is ready to speak to the press." The informateurs attempted to bridge the differences, but at the end of the day both Rutte and Cohen reported that they no longer saw any prospects in the negotiations. A day later, Rosenthal and Wallage submitted their final report to the queen.
Informateur Lubbers
Rosenthal and Wallage had not formulated any advice for next steps. Rutte therefore proposed through the media to write a draft coalition agreement himself, to which other parties could subscribe. Verhagen supported such an assignment, but this plan was advised against by Speaker of the House Gerdi Verbeet. The queen was advised to make another round of visits from all parlementary leaders to explore the options. Tjeenk Willink did not consider himself suitable for this, due to Wilders' commotion regarding his appendix in the previous round. Former CDA Prime Minister and Minister of State Ruud Lubbers was then asked to inform the queen "about the possibilities [...] for the formation of a cabinet that can count on a fruitful collaboration with the States General".
In his conversation with Lubbers, Rutte indicated that he preferred cooperation with CDA and PVV, if necessary with PVV only providing confidence and supply. Cohen believed that this right-wing cabinet should be investigated because the possibility made negotiations about purple-plus more difficult. He again was not enthusiastic about a middle cabinet because it was 'not in the interest of the country'. Halsema also advised exploring a right-wing cabinet, but still hoped for a majority coalition without the PVV. Lubbers warned both Cohen and Halsema that a right-wing cabinet could also succeed.