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Thecabinet of the Netherlands (Dutch:Nederlands kabinet) is the mainexecutive body of theNetherlands. The current cabinet of the Netherlands is theSchoof cabinet,[1] which has been in office since 2 July 2024. It is headed by Prime MinisterDick Schoof.[2]
The cabinet consists of theministers andstate secretaries, and is led by theprime minister.
Pursuant to article 44 of theConstitution, each ministry is headed by a minister. In this capacity, the minister is responsible for the civil service of his or her own ministry, and can issue orders and instructions, as well as guidelines and policy rules for the performance of statutory and administrative tasks. In this context, the minister also has legal prerogatives with regard to civil servants, such as appointment and dismissal. Furthermore, the minister is responsible for managing the ministry's budget.Ministers without portfolio can also be appointed. These ministers do not head a ministry, but are responsible for a policy area within a ministry. For example, theMinistry of Foreign Affairs is headed by theMinister of Foreign Affairs, but there is also aMinister for Foreign Trade and Development Aid placed in the same ministry.[3]
All ministers, including ministers without portfolio, together constitute theCouncil of Ministers. Article 45 of the Constitution states that the Council of Ministers "deliberates and decides on general government policy and promotes the unity of that policy." For this purpose, it meets every Friday in theTrêveszaal in theBinnenhof, under the chairmanship of the prime minister or a deputy prime minister.[4] In these confidential meetings, possible differences of opinion between ministers are settled so that the Council of Ministers can take decisions collectively and present a unified position to parliament, in line with the principle ofcabinet collective responsibility.[5] Typically, a good deal of effort is put into reaching relative consensus on any decision. A process of voting within the Council does exist, but is hardly ever used.
Article 46 of the Constitution allows for the appointment of state secretaries who, like ministers without portfolio, are responsible for a particular policy area within a ministry. Unlike ministers without portfolio, however, state secretaries do not attend meetings of the Council of Ministers unless invited, and even then they have no voting rights. Within their ministry, state secretaries are subordinate to the minister, but they bearindividual ministerial responsibility toward parliament with respect to their own policy area.[6] Some state secretaries are given the right to call themselves "Minister" in other countries and be treated as such forprotocolary purposes.
Together with theKing, the Council of Ministers forms the Government, which makes all the major decisions. In practice, the King does not participate in the daily decision-making of government, although he is kept up to date by weekly meetings with the Prime Minister. The Constitution does not speak of cabinet, but instead only of the Council of Ministers and Government.
The ministers, individually and collectively (as cabinet), areresponsible to theStates-General for government policy and must enjoy itsconfidence. It is not possible for a minister to be a member of parliament. Ministers or state secretaries who are no longer supported by a parliamentary majority are also expected byconvention to step down. In contrast to theWestminster system, Dutch ministers may not simultaneously also be members of the States-General, although members of the States-General can be appointed as ministers, whereupon their seats become vacant.
An important question is whether the relationship between the cabinet and parliament should bedualistic or monistic. That is, whether ministers and parliamentary leaders of governing parties should coordinate important political decisions. According to the dualistic position, members of parliament of governing parties should function independently of the cabinet. The monistic position, by contrast, is that the cabinet plays an important role in proposing legislation and policy.
After ageneral election held generally every four years, or if a cabinet resigns during a parliamentary term, the process of cabinet formation starts. Because of themulti-party system of the Netherlands, no single party has had a majority in parliament since 1900, and formation of a coalition of two or often three parties is always necessary. This is a time-consuming process. The entire procedure is regulated by tradition and convention, with only the final appointment process specified by law.
Since 2012, the House of Representative appoints ascout to explore which political parties are willing to form a cabinet together. In the subsequent information phase, negotiations will take place under the leadership of an informateur about the government's future policy programme, to be recorded in acoalition agreement.. If negotiations break down, a new informateur is appointed and the information process begins afresh. If the informateur is successful, the portfolios are determined, divided among the parties and ministers and state secretaries are sought under the leadership of aformateur. The formateur is usually the prospectivePrime Minister.
If the formateur is successful, the Monarch appoints all ministers and state secretaries individually by Royal Decision (Koninklijk Besluit). Each Minister privately swears an oath of loyalty to the Constitution. After this the entire Council of Ministers and the King or Queenregnant are photographed on the stairs of the palaceHuis ten Bosch during thebordes scene. The new cabinet then presents theirgovernment statement to parliament.
Between the dissolution of the States-General before general elections and the appointment of a new cabinet, the incumbent cabinet is termeddemissionair, that is, acaretaker government limiting itself to urgent and pressing matters and traditionally not taking any controversial decisions. If a Cabinet falls during a parliamentary term because one of the coalition partners withdraws its support, the coalition partner in question may leave. This does not result in ademissionair Cabinet, unless the Prime Minister is granted a dissolution of the States-General. Instead, the remaining parties in the governing coalition form arompkabinet ("rump cabinet"). If the parties do not between them control a majority of the House of Representatives, the cabinet continues as aminority government.
Established in 1798, theUitvoerend Bewind of theBatavian Republic is considered to be the first government of the Netherlands.[7]
The first cabinet of theKingdom of the Netherlands was formed in 1848 after a constitution was adopted which limited the power of the King and introduced the principle of ministerial responsibility to parliament. Until 1888 cabinets lacked a real coordinating role, and instead ministers were focused on their own department. After 1888 cabinets became more political.
Of the 32 coalition governments since World War II, only three excluded the largest party (all three times PvdA) and the largest number of parties in a coalition was 5 (in 1971 and 1973). After that, the three major Christian-democratic parties merged into CDA, and 2- or 3-party coalitions became standard.
Since 1945 there have been 32 cabinets, which were headed by 16 prime ministers.Willem Drees andJan Peter Balkenende both chaired the most cabinets (four) andRuud Lubbers served as prime minister the longest (between 1982 and 1994). Thesecond Rutte cabinet was the longest lasting cabinet since World War II (1,816 days); only the cabinet led byTheo Heemskerk sat longer (2025 days). Thefirst Balkenende cabinet is the shortest lasting normal cabinet since World War II (87 days); only the fifth cabinet ofHendrikus Colijn lasted shorter (10 days).
There are different types of cabinets:
