The second Balkenende cabinet was the executive branch of the Government of the Netherlands from 27 May 2003 until 7 July 2006. The cabinet was formed by the Christian-democratic Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), and the social-liberal Democrats 66 (D66) after the election of 2003. The cabinet was a centre-right coalition and had a slim majority in the House of Representatives with Christian Democratic Leader Jan Peter Balkenende serving as Prime Minister. Liberal Leader Gerrit Zalm, a former Minister of Finance, served as Deputy Prime Minister and returned as Minister of Finance, while former Progressive-Liberal Leader Thom de Graaf served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister without Portfolio for the Interior.
de Volkskrant is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000.
NRC, previously called NRC Handelsblad, is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. It is generally accepted as a newspaper of record in the Netherlands.
Femke Halsema is a Dutch politician and filmmaker. On 27 June 2018, she was appointed Mayor of Amsterdam and began serving a six-year term on 12 July 2018. She is the first woman to hold the position on a non-interim basis. She previously was a member of the House of Representatives for the leftist green party, GroenLinks from 1998 to 2011, and served as the party's parliamentary leader from 2002 to 2010.
Kathalijne Maria Buitenweg is a Dutch politician for the GreenLeft who served as a member of the House of Representatives between 2017 and 2021. Between 1999 and 2009, she was a Member of the European Parliament, and sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. In 2019 she was exposed as one of the members of the secret Bilderberg meeting.
Alexander Pechtold is a retired Dutch politician and art historian. He is a member of Democrats 66.
Alexander Hendrik George Rinnooy Kan is a Dutch politician, businessman and mathematician who served as Chairman of the Social and Economic Council from 2006 to 2012. A member of the Democrats 66 (D66) party, he was a member of the Senate from 2015 to 2019 and is a distinguished professor of Economics and Business Studies at the University of Amsterdam since 1 September 2012. He has also been president of the supervisory board of EYE Film Institute Netherlands since 2008 and of Museum Boerhaave since 2018.
Pietje Aafke "Pia" Dijkstra is a Dutch politician of the Democrats 66 (D66) and former television presenter. From 2010 to 2021, she served as a member of the House of Representatives. She was Minister for Medical Care in the demissionary fourth Rutte cabinet from February 2024 until July 2024.
Wassila Hachchi is a Dutch former politician and former civil servant and Royal Netherlands Navy officer. As a member of Democrats 66 (D66) she was an MP from 17 June 2010 until 19 January 2016. She focused on matters of defense, development aid and Kingdom relations.
De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars is a political non-fiction book released by the Dutch political commentator and aspiring lawmaker Pim Fortuyn in 2002, two months prior to his assassination. In the book, Fortuyn sharply criticizes the then ruling "Purple" coalition government and its direct predecessor on nearly all areas of their policies.
Johannes "Jos" Silvis is a Dutch law professor and judge. He was a judge at the European Court of Human Rights from 1 November 2012 through 1 September 2016. He subsequently became attorney general at the Supreme Court of the Netherlands.
Dora Dolz de Herman was a Spanish-Dutch artist, best known for her outdoor ceramic works in the form of chairs and sofas.
Daniël (Daan) van Golden was a Dutch artist, who has been active as a painter, photographer, collagist, installation artist, wall painter and graphic artist. He is known for his meticulous paintings of motives and details of everyday life and every day images.
Bernardus Stefanus Henricus (Ben) Zegers is a Dutch visual artist, active as a sculptor and installation artist, and teacher and coordinator at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy.
The Dutch Furniture Awards is a former annual furniture design competition in the Netherlands, organized from 1985 to 1998. This was an initiative of the Jaarbeurs Utrecht and the Vereniging van Vakbeurs Meubel (VVM).
Samira Rafaela is a Dutch politician of Democrats 66. She served as a Member of the European Parliament between 2019 and 2024, and she was also a member of the Young Democrats.
Johannes Alexander "Hans" Vijlbrief is a Dutch civil servant, economist, and politician, currently serving as a member of parliament for the social-liberal party Democrats 66 (D66). He previously served as State Secretary for the Extractive Industries in the Fourth Rutte cabinet.
Pepijn van Houwelingen is a Dutch politician, who has been serving as member of the House of Representatives with a short pause since 2021. He is a member of the conservative populist party Forum for Democracy (FvD). Van Houwelingen holds a doctorate and has worked for the Netherlands Institute for Social Research for a decade.
Following the Dutch general election on 17 March 2021, a cabinet formation led to the establishment of the fourth Rutte cabinet in 2022. The coalition included the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), Democrats 66 (D66), Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and Christian Union (CU), the same parties from the preceding third Rutte cabinet. This formation process, lasting 299 days, was the longest formation in Dutch history.
Kim Putters is a Dutch public administrator, former politician and administrator. From 2003 to 15 June 2013 he was a Member of the Dutch Senate for the Labour Party. Since his retirement from the Dutch Senate, he was director of The Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) until June 2022. Since September 16, 2022, he has been chairman of the Social and Economic Council (SER).
