PM wants temporary minority government ahead of elections
Premier Jan Peter Balkenende on Friday offered the resignation of his cabinet to Queen Beatrix. He advised the formation of a temporary minority coalition with full status.
On Thursday, the cabinet concluded that remaining in government was impossible. After the smallest centre-left D66 coalition partner had withdrawn its support to the cabinet, the D66 ministers Laurens Jan Brinkhorst and Alexander Pechtold resigned and the full cabinet could no longer continue.
At 10.30 a.m. on Friday, Balkenende officially tendered the resignation of the three D66 cabinet members - Brinkhorst, Pechtold and state secretary Medy van der Laan - to the Queen in her role as head of state. The premier also tendered the positions of the rest of the government - the Christian democratic (CDA) and conservative (VVD) ministers and state secretaries.
Balkende spoke with the Queen for about an hour on how to proceed further. The premier advised her to form a new cabinet consisting of CDA and VVD. This minority coalition should not have a caretaker status but rather the power to continue in government in order to continue policy and prepare for early elections.
Following the premier the Queen received for consultations the Speakers of the Upper and Lower House and vice-president Tjeenk Willink of the Council of State -the monarch is its president. In the evening and on Saturday the leaders of the various parliamentary parties were scheduled to give their opinions, one after another. On the basis of all this advice, the Queen will decide what happens next.
There are various options. The most likely is that CDA and VVD temporarily govern on without D66. They will then form a full-status minority government, enabling them to continue to implement policy until new elections take place. The general elections that would have taken place in May 2007 will likely be moved forward to November or December this year.
Normally, after a government falls, it has a caretaker status until a new government is formed. No new policy can then be introduced and ongoing business cannot be handled if it involves delicate matters.
Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner expects elections to be held at end-November. He does not consider it sensible to have a caretaker government until that time. Donner’s preference is for a temporary minority CDA-VVD cabinet which can draw up the 2007 budget in the coming months.
The budget is presented annually in September. Additionally, the Netherlands is sending 1,400 troops on a dangerous mission to south Afghanistan in August. “Then it would not be good to have a caretaker cabinet,” argued Donner.
Finance Minister and VVD Vice-Premier Gerrit Zalm shares the conclusions of Balkenende and Donner. “The cabinet was in the middle of the preparations for a very nice budget and it would be sensible to allow that task to be completed by a full-status government”. According to Zalm, the chances of a temporary CDA-VVD minority cabinet are 75 percent.
The parliamentary leaders of CDA and VVD also asked the Queen on Friday for a temporary full-status minority cabinet, in anticipation of earlier elections. “The reform agenda must be completed,” according to CDA leader Maxime Verhagen. His brand-new VVD counterpart Mark Rutte - he was sworn in on the day the government fell - gave a similar analysis.
Wouter Bos, leader of the largest opposition party, Labour (PvdA), believes elections should be held as quickly as possibly, “preferably in the autumn.” He considers a temporary minority government “undesirable.” Socialists (SP) leader Jan Marijnissen however could “understand” CDA and VVD holding a full-status cabinet due to the mission in Afghanistan.
ChristenUnie also urges a full-status minority cabinet that should however draw up “a policy-frugal budget.” “It should not be the case that a Balkenende III cabinet carries out the tail of the reform agenda of the collapsed Balkenende II,” he said. “I do sense that intention among CDA and VVD.”
Source: NIS News, ANP, 30 June 2006
