Fourth Rutte cabinet Rutte–Kaag–Hoekstra–Schouten cabinet | |
---|---|
71st cabinet of the Netherlands | |
Date formed | 10 January 2022 2 years, 74 days in office |
Date dissolved | Still in office, demissionary since 7 July 2023 |
People and organisations | |
Monarch | King Willem-Alexander |
Prime Minister | Mark Rutte |
Deputy Prime Minister | Sigrid Kaag (until January 2024) Rob Jetten (since January 2024) Wopke Hoekstra (until September 2023) Karien van Gennip (since September 2023) Carola Schouten |
No. of ministers | 20 |
Member party | People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) Democrats 66 (D66) Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) Christian Union (CU) |
Status in legislature | Centre to centre-right, majority government (coalition government) 41/150 |
History | |
Election(s) | 2021 election |
Outgoing election | 2023 election |
Legislature term(s) | 2021–2023 |
Incoming formation | 2021–2022 formation |
Outgoing formation | 2023–2024 formation |
Predecessor | Third Rutte cabinet |
Part of the Politics series |
Politicsportal |
The fourth Rutte cabinet is the current cabinet of the Netherlands. It was inaugurated on 10 January 2022. The cabinet is a continuation of the third Rutte cabinet and is formed by the conservative liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the social liberal Democrats 66 (D66) and the Christian democratic Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and Christian Union (CU) after the election of 2021. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] The cabinet fell on 7 July 2023, after failing to reach an agreement on separate treatment of refugees fleeing from war. [10] [11] As a result, the cabinet became demissionary.
The formation of the cabinet was particularly difficult; it required the longest time of any cabinet so far. [12]
The formation became difficult after scout Ollongren was photographed with notes that read "Omtzigt position elsewhere", which was controversial, for Omtzigt was one of the most popular members of parliament within his party, the Christian Democratic Appeal. [13]
The coalition accord contained, among other things, more agreements about accelerating the Netherlands' climate ambitions (55% CO2 reduction in 2030), changes to daycare costs, preparation for new nuclear power plants, creation of road pricing (not toll) starting in 2030, accelerated nitrogen reduction (−50% in 2030), more regulation of the rental sector, equalizing pay between grade school and high school teachers, a return of the basic scholarship for students, increase over time of legal minimum wage by 7.5% and more defense spending. [14]
In February 2022, the cabinet offered its apologies to Indonesia for the systematic and extreme violence by Dutch soldiers during the Indonesian war of independence and the subsequent turning of a blind eye by all previous administrations. The apologies were also extended to any other groups in the Netherlands who had had to learn to live with the consequences of these decisions, such as veterans. [15]
In December 2022, the cabinet offered their apologies for the Dutch history of slavery, in particular the trans-Atlantic slave trade, on behalf of itself and all its institutional predecessors, denouncing the slave trade as a crime against humanity. In the National Archives, the prime minister also offered the apology in Sranan Tongo, Papiamento, Dutch and English. For the first time, the cabinet recognized that the slave trade had had lasting consequences in the Netherlands, a kind of institutional racism. It proposed a fund of €200 million for measures surrounding "awareness, engagement and impact". [16]
Approximately 26,000 single parents were accused of fraud by the Dutch tax and customs administration, which, for some, resulted in their children being taken out of their custody, even if they had not committed fraud. This had been brewing for many years, but only gained national attention during Rutte III, and led to that government's resignation in 2021. [17] While a special department was created to rectify this mistake, the problem has not been resolved. [18]
This has resulted in people feeling like no real change has happened between governments as the process of rectification has ground to a standstill and there is seemingly no end in sight. [19]
Mark Rutte has been in the news many times for maintaining a closed governing culture. [20] During parliamentary hearings surrounding the welfare scandal, there was mention of a "Rutte-doctrine", a policy of keeping as much information away from the public as possible. [20] After the fall of the cabinet, it has been characterized by CDA parliamentary leader Pieter Heerma as "irresponsibly harsh" and "bordering on reckless politics". [21]
Some of the promises made in the coalition accord were to "improve the information provided to the House of Representatives", modernizing the archival law and to make information available to the public more quickly. [20]
Public inquiry by the newspaper de Volkskrant led to them suing the government over a freedom of information request. During the process, it came to light that prime minister Mark Rutte had been wiping the majority of SMS text messages he received on his private phone for years, in violation of the archival legislation. [22] His excuse was that his phone memory filled up too quickly. This was not considered a plausible excuse by members of the House. [20]
The Netherlands has a long history[ when? ] of subsidizing students to take higher education, but a significant change to the system in 2015 (Rutte II) ended the basic scholarship (basisbeurs), introducing instead a borrowing system; this was projected to save the government a billion euro per year. [23]
Rutte IV reintroduced the basic scholarship, stating that the high student debts reduce quality of life, make students more hesitant to pursue higher education and reduce the chance for equal opportunities. [24] There were also additional compensation for students who studied under the borrowing framework. [24]
The Netherlands has a history of extracting gas from natural gas fields and does not experience natural destructive earthquakes according to the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, [25] however, the extraction of natural gas above the Groningen gas field has caused several man-made earthquakes which severely damaged people's properties. [26] [27] The damage to the locals and concerns around climate change have been an ongoing concern and led to a parliamentary audit on the government's decisions surrounding the Groningen gas field, the largest natural gas field in Europe.
Earthquakes caused by gas extraction have been noted elsewhere in the Netherlands as well. [28] Earthquakes due to gas extraction have been happening since 1986, [28] but have only grown more severe since the 2000s.[ citation needed ]
The gas extraction in Groningen has been scaling down since 2018, and is planned to stop in October 2023. [29] This was a point of contention given the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent European ban on gas imports from Russia.
During the Rutte IV cabinet, compensation was awarded to homeowners whose houses were damaged by gas extraction, [30] but this process has generally not gone smoothly. [31]
On 24 February 2023, a parliamentary inquiry commission determined the government owed a ereschuld("debt of honour") to residents of Groningen and proposed several remedies to alleviate this. [32]
The government of the Netherlands is experiencing a crisis of ecology and of governance through the mishandling of the European measures on nitrogen that were agreed upon as early as 1991 with the agreement of the Habitats Directive. It has been recognized as a serious issue since 2019. [33]
Nitrogen emissions are caused by a variety of essential economic activities such as construction, farming, transport and industry, but there is a science-informed and court-enforced target that the Netherlands would have to reduce nitrogen emissions in certain areas by up to 50% compared to 2019 by 2023. [33] This has created political unrest among the industries affected, most visibly farmers, who protested and flew Dutch flags upside down and founded a new political party, the Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB), just after the report from 2019.
Since the cabinet took charge in January 2022, courts have ruled that the policy surrounding construction was not consistent with, or insufficient to comply with, nitrogen legislation and thousands of construction projects had to be halted or cancelled to comply with nitrogen legislation. [34] [35]
The cabinet has attempted to negotiate an agreeable settlement with both small and large agrarians, but all attempts at negotiation eventually broke down. [36] [37] [38] The strong incentive to negotiate is in part due to the large political gains of BBB in the 2023 provincial elections. The cabinet changed its position several times, sometimes telling different things to different parties, leading to more tension and uncertainty. [39] [40]
Rising energy prices and high inflation impacted the economy of the Netherlands during the term of the government, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent ban on fuel imports from Russia, and greedflation. [41] The rise in energy prices prompted the government to introduce a price ceiling on energy, paying the difference on behalf of the citizens. [42] [43] [44]
The Netherlands has had a severe housing shortage for some time[ when? ] for a variety of reasons.[ which? ] This shortage grew significantly during the term of the cabinet from ~300,000 [45] to about 400,000 houses. [46] [47]
Immigration and asylum policy has been an important political topic in the Netherlands for many years. The government has generally been unwilling to create permanent capacity for asylum seekers, choosing to instead scale capacity up or down as required, creating issues for municipalities. [48]
In recent years, the Netherlands has received asylum seekers from Syria fleeing the Syrian civil war and from Ukraine fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Asylum applications have increased by ~33% since 2022 to over 47,000, and, according to government estimates, are expected to reach 70,000 by the end of 2023. [49] This has exceeded the number of refugees the country was prepared for. [50] According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, this was because capacity to house asylum seekers was scaled down after the "Turkey deal". [51]
In 2022, through the introduction of the Spreidingswet , the government chose to devolve responsibility for taking on an assigned number of asylum seekers to the municipalities, which would receive the responsibility to house and integrate a number of asylum seekers from the COA (central organ for housing asylum seekers). [52] [53] Municipalities were generally found either unwilling or unable to place asylum seeker housing centers (AZCs), in part due to concerns of locals such as "there are too many people" or "why can't it be somewhere else?". [54] [55]
The scaling down of housing for asylum seekers, a general housing shortage and the inability to create more housing has resulted in bad living conditions in registration centre Ter Apel , [56] [57] which resulted in the international red cross deeming it necessary to lend aid, as conditions were considered "inhuman and unsustainable". [58] [59]
The Raad voor het Openbaar Bestuur (the council for public governance) and the Adviesraad Migratie (advice council immigration) judged the crisis to be "a crisis created and maintained by the government itself". [58]
In February 2023, the CDA proposed to institute a two-status system. This proposal was supported by the VVD but opposed by Christian Union and Democrats 66. [60]
The proposal would have classified war refugees under a different status than other refugees. It would limit the total number of relatives who could be reunited with refugees to 200 per month, [49] force families to wait for two years before being allowed to reunite [49] and reduce the maximum term of residence to three years compared to the regular seven. [60]
Disagreement about this proposal led to the government's resignation three months later, as Christian Union and Democrats 66 could not abide by the terms demanded by the VVD. [61] [10] This was a premeditated strategy, rather than chance, according to Christian Union and opposition parties. [21]
The cabinet fell on Friday 7 July 2023, after failing to reach an agreement on the separate treatment of refugees fleeing from war. [10] [11] As a result, the cabinet became demissionary. Mark Rutte offered the resignation of the cabinet to the King on Saturday, 8 July. [62] He announced his departure from politics altogether on Monday 10 July, [63] bringing an end to more than thirteen years of his leadership of his party, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy. [64] Many opposition parties are hoping this signals the end of Rutte's style of politics in the Netherlands, [21] which has been characterized as neoliberal [65] and closed off from outsiders. [20] Following Rutte's resignation, Wopke Hoekstra of the CDA also indicated he would not be available as party leader for the next election. Sigrid Kaag of D66 [66] also announced her departure from politics; her reason for this was that death threats she had received had had a heavy negative impact on her and her family. Kaag was threatened at her home with torches earlier in the year. [66]
The government becoming demissionary has consequences for a variety of measures that were meant to alleviate the current issues in the Netherlands. Any policy considered "controversial" will not be acted on and will be left to be decided by the upcoming election. [67] This has resulted in a failure to reach new labour accords with the trade unions for higher wages and improved working conditions despite record profits for corporations; [68] a failure to reach an accord with the agricultural sector, creating more uncertainty for farmers and uncertainty of attaining the nitrogen targets; [69] [21] and prolonging the housing shortage. [70] Nevertheless, the NRC reported the demissionary status of the cabinet had a more limited impact compared to the past with several ministers introducing new legislative proposals. By March 2024, 61 subjects had been declared controversial compared to 300–400 in the two preceding demissionary periods. [71]
A general election was held on 22 November 2023 in accordance with the Dutch Electoral Act mandating a prompt vote. [72] [73] In the months following the election, three cabinet members of D66 stepped down to pursue other opportunities: State Secretary for Culture and Media Gunay Uslu became CEO of Corendon, Minister of Finance Sigrid Kaag returned to diplomacy at the United Nations, and Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport Ernst Kuipers left for an unspecified international job. Former state secretary Steven van Weyenberg succeeded Uslu, but he was picked a month later to fill the Minister of Finance vacancy. Fleur Gräper subsequently became the new State Secretary for Culture and Media. Kaag's second position of Deputy Prime Minister was taken over by Rob Jetten. [74] [75] Rutte called the departures unfortunate but individually explainable and said he was not concerned. [76] Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Liesje Schreinemacher became the first minister in Dutch history to go on maternity leave in December 2023, and she was temporarily replaced by Geoffrey van Leeuwen. [77]
Title | Minister | Term of office | Party | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Image | Name | Start | End | |||
Prime Minister | Mark Rutte | 14 October 2010 [lower-roman 1] | Incumbent | VVD | ||
First Deputy Prime Minister | Sigrid Kaag | 10 January 2022 | 8 January 2024 [lower-roman 2] | D66 | ||
Rob Jetten | 8 January 2024 | Incumbent | ||||
Second Deputy Prime Minister | Wopke Hoekstra | 10 January 2022 | 1 September 2023 [lower-roman 2] | CDA | ||
Karien van Gennip | 5 September 2023 | Incumbent | ||||
Third Deputy Prime Minister | Carola Schouten | 26 October 2017 [lower-roman 1] | Incumbent | CU |
The prime minister of the Netherlands is the head of the executive branch of the Government of the Netherlands. Although the monarch is the de jure head of government, the prime minister de facto occupies this role as the officeholder chairs the Council of Ministers and coordinates its policy with the rest of the cabinet. In his role as head of government, the prime minister also represents the Netherlands in the European Council. The current acting prime minister, Mark Rutte, has been in the position since 14 October 2010, with his fourth cabinet being inaugurated on 10 January 2022. He resigned his position on 7 July 2023 and until a new prime minister is sworn in after the 2023 Dutch general election, he will serve in a demissionary capacity.
The minister of foreign affairs is the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a member of the Cabinet and the Council of Ministers. The incumbent minister is Hanke Bruins Slot of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) who has been in office since 5 September 2023. Regularly, a state secretary is assigned to the ministry who is tasked with specific portfolios, currently the function is not in use. Additionally since 1965 there has been a minister without portfolio assigned to the ministry, the minister for foreign trade and development cooperation has traditionally development cooperation as portfolio, since 2012 the portfolio of trade and export has been assigned added to the function. The current minister for foreign trade and development cooperation is Liesje Schreinemacher of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) who has been in office since 1 September 2023.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the Netherlands' ministry responsible for foreign relations, foreign policy, international development, international trade, diaspora and matters dealing with the European Union, NATO and the Benelux Union. The ministry was created in 1798, as the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Batavian Republic. In 1876, it became the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Ministry of Finance is the Dutch Ministry responsible for economic policy, monetary policy, fiscal policy, tax policy, incomes policy, financial regulation, the government budget and the financial market. The Ministry was created in 1798 as the Department of Finance of the Batavian Republic. It became the Ministry of Finance in 1876. The Minister of Finance is the head of the Ministry and a member of the Cabinet of the Netherlands. The current Minister is Steven van Weyenberg.
The minister for foreign trade and development cooperation is a minister without portfolio in the Netherlands. The officeholder, who is a member of the Cabinet and the Council of Ministers, is assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The minister is tasked with Trade and Export, Development Cooperation and International Environmental Policies. The current acting minister is Geoffrey van Leeuwen of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) who has been replacing Liesje Schreinemacher during her maternity leave since 4 December 2023.
Sigrid Agnes Maria Kaag is a Dutch politician, humanitarian and diplomat. She was the leader of the Democrats 66 (D66) and served as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and as Minister of Finance.
General elections were held in the Netherlands from 15 to 17 March 2021 to elect all 150 members of the House of Representatives. Following the elections and lengthy coalition formation talks, the sitting government remained in power.
The third Rutte cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 26 October 2017 until 10 January 2022. It was formed by a coalition government of the political parties People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), Democrats 66 (D66) and Christian Union (CU) after the general election of 2017.
Hugo Mattheüs de Jonge is a Dutch politician serving as Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and as Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning, since 2023 and 2022, respectively, in the Fourth Rutte cabinet. A member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), he was elected to its leadership in 2020 for the 2021 Dutch general election. He withdrew later that year, citing an impossibility to combine his position as Health Minister in charge of the COVID-19 pandemic efforts with his party leadership.
Wopke Bastiaan Hoekstra is a Dutch politician. He served as second Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the fourth Rutte cabinet between 10 January 2022 and 1 September 2023. Hoekstra previously served as Minister of Finance in the third Rutte cabinet from 2017 to 2022 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) from 2020 to 2023. In 2023, he was nominated to take on the role of Frans Timmermans as EU Commissioner, being responsible for climate action; a petition was started against Hoekstra's nomination due to his past work for Shell and his decisions that backed oil explorations in the Netherlands.
Rob Arnoldus Adrianus Jetten is a Dutch politician serving as First Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Minister for Climate and Energy Policy in the fourth Rutte cabinet since January 2022. He has served as Leader of the Democrats 66 (D66) since August 2023, and has been the party's parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives since December 2023.
Johannes Alexander "Hans" Vijlbrief is a Dutch civil servant, economist, and politician, who currently serves as State Secretary for the Extractive Industries. He is a member of the social-liberal party Democrats 66 (D66).
Early general elections were held in the Netherlands on 22 November 2023 to elect the members of the House of Representatives. The elections had been expected to be held in 2025 but a snap election was called after the fourth Rutte cabinet collapsed on 7 July 2023 due to immigration policy disagreements between the coalition parties. The incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced that he would not lead his party into the election and that he would retire from politics.
A process of cabinet formation took place following the 2021 Dutch general election, leading to the formation of the Fourth Rutte cabinet in 2022. The coalition consisted of People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), Democrats 66 (D66), Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and Christian Union (CU), the same parties that formed the preceding Third Rutte cabinet. At 299 days, it was the longest formation in Dutch history.
Thomas Justinus Arnout Marie de Bruijn is a Dutch diplomat, civil servant and politician who served as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation in the third Rutte cabinet from 10 August 2021 to 10 January 2022. He is a member of the social-liberal Democrats 66 (D66) party.
Vivianne L.W.A. Heijnen is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party. She has been serving as the Minister for the Environment as part of the fourth Rutte cabinet since January 2022. Heijnen was previously head of the Brussels campus of her alma mater Maastricht University, and she was active in local politics in Maastricht as municipal councilor (2010–18) and alderwoman (2018–22).
In the run-up to the 2023 Dutch general election, various organisations carried out opinion polling to gauge voting intentions in the Netherlands. Results of such polls are displayed in this list.
Henk Staghouwer is a Dutch administrator and Christian Union politician. He served as Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality in the fourth Rutte cabinet from 10 January to 5 September 2022. From 24 April 2013 to 10 January 2022 he was a member of the provincial executive of Groningen.
Maarten van Ooijen is a Dutch politician. Since 10 January 2022, he has been State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport on behalf of the Christian Union in the Fourth Rutte cabinet. He was an alderman in Utrecht from 7 June 2018 to 10 January 2022.