Cabinet Formation
Since no party holds an absolute majority in the House of Representatives, the formation of a coalition government that consists of parties who together have enough seats to propose laws that can count on a majority in the House of Representatives was necessary. This is most commonly achieved by building a coalition that has a majority; although a minority cabinet that arranges ad-hoc majorities for its proposals is possible. With the 2006 results a majority coalition requires at least three parties.
Initially, negotiations for a cabinet of CDA, PvdA and SP were started, but the parties seemed unwilling to form this cabinet. Later on, negotiations for a CDA-PvdA-ChristenUnie cabinet were started. This resulted in the formation of the Fourth cabinet Balkenende. It was installed by Queen Beatrix on 22 February 2007. In the meantime the Balkenende III cabinet continued as a caretaker cabinet, which is not supposed to make new policy.
Read more about this topic: Dutch General Election, 2006
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