First Rutte cabinet Rutte–Verhagen cabinet | |
|---|---|
 Cabinet of the Netherlands | |
 Installation of the cabinet byQueen Beatrix atHuis ten Bosch on 14 October 2010 | |
| Date formed | 14 October 2010 (2010-10-14) |
| Date dissolved | 5 November 2012 (2012-11-05) 2 years, 22 days in office (Demissionary from 23 April 2012 (2012-04-23)) |
| People and organisations | |
| Monarch | Queen Beatrix |
| Prime Minister | Mark Rutte |
| Deputy Prime Minister | Maxime Verhagen |
| No. of ministers | 12 |
| Ministers removed | 1 |
| Totalno. of members | 13 |
| Member party | People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) Party for Freedom (PVV) (Confidence and supply) |
| Status in legislature | Right-wingminority government |
| History | |
| Election | 2010 election |
| Outgoing election | 2012 election |
| Legislature terms | 2010–2012 |
| Incoming formation | 2010 formation |
| Outgoing formation | 2012 formation |
| Predecessor | Fourth Balkenende cabinet |
| Successor | Second Rutte cabinet |
Thefirst Rutte cabinet, also called theRutte–Verhagen cabinet was theexecutive branch of thegovernment of the Netherlands from 14 October 2010 until 5 November 2012. Thecabinet was formed by theconservative-liberalPeople's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and theChristian-democraticChristian Democratic Appeal (CDA) after theelection of 2010. The cabinet was a right-wing coalition and had aminority in theHouse of Representatives but hadconfidence and supply from theParty for Freedom (PVV) for a slimmajority withLiberal LeaderMark Rutte serving asPrime Minister.Christian Democratic LeaderMaxime Verhagen served asDeputy Prime Minister andMinister of Economic Affairs,Agriculture and Innovation.
The cabinet served in the early years of the 2010s. Domestically, it had to deal with the fallout of the2008 financial crisis but it was able to implement several majorsocial reforms tolaw enforcement,victims' rights andimmigration. Internationally, it had to deal with theEuropean debt crisis, thewar on terror and the government support for theTask Force Uruzgan. The cabinet suffered several major internal and external conflicts because of the confidence and supply construction from the Party for Freedom. The cabinet fell just 18 months into its term on 23 April 2012 after the Party for Freedom withdrew its support following a disagreeing with the coalition over stronger austerity measures to reduce thedeficit following the2008 financial crisis. The cabinet continued in ademissionary capacity until it was replaced by thesecond Rutte cabinet following theelection of 2012.[1][2][3]
Following the collapse of thefourth 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 severalinformateurs were appointed to investigate the formation of a coalition cabinet. A broad coalition consisting of thePeople's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD),Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and theLabour Party (PvdA) was briefly looked at, but dismissed. Then negotiations for a "purple plus" coalition consisting of the VVD, PvdA,Democrats 66 andGreenLeft 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 the VVD and Christian Democratic Appeal (together 52 out of 150 seats in the House of Representatives), supported in parliament by theParty for Freedom (PVV, 24 seats), to make the smallest possible majority of 76 seats. The right wing PVV had the largest gains in the recent elections.
The stated reason for this construction was that parties agreed that the largest party (the VVD) and the party with the largest gains (considered the 'winner' in Dutch politics) needed to be in power. Only 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 the VVD and CDA), and to form a "parliamentary support agreement" between all three parties, which were successfully finished on 30 September 2010.
When Rutte took office on 14 October, it marked the first time that the VVD had led a government since its formation in 1946. It also marked the firstliberal-led government since 1913.
Opposition parties and commentators expected that the coalition would prove to be unstable because at a special Christian Democratic Appeal conference, about a third of the party members voted against the formation of this cabinet. Also, at least three members of parliament in the CDA parliamentary fraction indicated to have difficulties with the cabinet. Eventually they left the parliament or supported the deal, pointing to the approval by the majority of the party conference.
When the cabinet took office, the three parties had a minority in theSenate of 35 out of 75 seats. The parties hoped this would change following theDutch Senate election of 2011, but they obtained 37 seats, one short of a majority. A small protestant party, theReformed Political Party, which obtained one seat, supported the cabinet in the Senate however.
The cabinet consisted of 12Ministers and 8State secretaries. The positions where 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, andChristian Democratic Appeal (21 seats) also supplied 6 Ministers and 4 State secretaries.
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Early political career First Ministry and term Second Ministry and term Third Ministry and term
Fourth Ministry and term | ||
| Media gallery | ||
In accordance with thePeople's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) approach tolaissez-faire and asmall government, the number of ministers and State Secretaries was reduced from the previous cabinet by merging several ministries. TheMinistry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality was merged with the Ministry of Economic Affairs to form a combinedMinistry Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. TheMinistry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment was merged with theMinistry of Transport and Water Management to form the newMinistry of Infrastructure and the Environment.
The portfolio ofpublic security was transferred from theMinistry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations to the Ministry of Justice which was renamed as theMinistry of Security and Justice, in line with the tough security profile of the coalition parties, especially the VVD which delivered both the minister and state secretary for this department. Also the position of theMinister for Development Cooperation, a long servingMinister without portfolio title that had been used continuously since 1965 (except for a small break from 2002 to 2003), was scrapped and replaced by the return of a Minister without portfolio for Immigration and Asylum Affairs like in the previousCabinets Balkenende I,II andIII, but this time this post was placed at the department and budget of theMinistry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations instead of the Ministry of Security and Justice.
Because of the financial crisis in the Netherlands and because of the rules of theEuro convergence criteria that the deficit should be maximum 3%, theLeaders of thePeople's Party for Freedom and DemocracyMark Rutte,Christian Democratic AppealMaxime Verhagen and theParty for FreedomGeert Wilders decided to talk with each other about new, severe austerity measures, worth about 14 billion Euro. The negotiations about the measures were held in theCatshuis and 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 thepensions law. Both Mark Rutte and Maxime Verhagen blamed Wilders for the failure of the negotiations. As a result, the government resigned and a new election was called.
On 16 December 2011,Minister of the Interior and Kingdom RelationsPiet Hein Donner (CDA) resigned after he was nominated as the newVice-President of the Council of State succeedingHerman Tjeenk Willink. He was replaced asMinister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations by formerChairwoman of the Christian Democratic AppealLiesbeth Spies.Piet Hein Donner asMinister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations was responsible for the portfolio of Integration. When he resigned the Integration portfolio was transferred toMinister without portfolioGerd Leers.[4][5][6]
| Minister | Title/Ministry/Portfolio(s) | Term of office | Party | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Begin | End | |||||||
 | Gerd Leers (born 1951) | Minister | Interior and Kingdom Relations | •Immigration and Asylum | 14 October 2010 | 16 December 2011 | CDA | |
| •Immigration and Asylum •Integration •Minorities | 16 December 2011 | 5 November 2012 | ||||||
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