Formation
After a parliamentary debate concerning the information and the coalition agreement on May 20, the informateurs did report to queen Beatrix and the same evening Jan Peter Balkenende was appointed as Formateur. Maxime Verhagen was appointed as leader of the CDA parliamentary party and together with Gerrit Zalm (VVD) and Boris Dittrich (D66) he started new negotiations on the formation of a new cabinet.
Within a week all ministers and state secretaries for the new cabinet had been identified. Because the previous cabinet with two of the three prospective coalition partners already in it had been installed only a year ago, 17 members of the new cabinet held their post and only 9 new members had to be appointed.
One flaw of the First Balkenende cabinet was corrected with the installation of the second: it contained more female members. On May 27, 2003 the Second Balkenende cabinet was sworn in the queen.
Read more about this topic: 2003 Dutch Cabinet Formation
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