Politics: Govt: Netherlands swears-in new cabinet, Prime Minister's fourth (Balkenende IV)

Ninety-two days after the most recent national election (Nov23,2k6) in the Netherlands, Prime Minister Peter Balkenende was sworn-in again with what is now his fourth cabinet (Balkenende IV). Balkenende is leader of the Christian Democratic Alliance, which received the largest number of votes in comparison to all the other parties.

The second h+est vote-receiver which has joined in the cabinet-formation is the Labour Party. This is a stunning change from the forced alliance of Christian Democrats in the earlier Balkenende cabinets--where they had to work with anti-immigrants parties and the erratic behaviour with the Liberal Party (old school free-enterprise liberalism) which went thru a series of internal convulsions and shifted to a shrieking anti-immigrant stance. Balkenende's CDA remained stead on course, surviving the cabinent-partners and now linking with Labour as the larger cabinent partner.

Also admitted to the cabinet were representatives of the small ChristenUnie, a Christian political party more intensely social-conservative than the CDA. This was also surprising, since the CU has not been in cabinet (at least for some time ... I'll have to check this out).

The swearing-in of the cabinet members took place on Feb22,2k7 in the presence of Queen Beatrix, the reigning monarch of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. As cabinet members, the newly sworn-in will have much greater independence in their respective ministries than in most parliamentary countries. Their oath is to serve the Queen first, not their parties. But the Queen does not give them orders, as is the case also in the British parliament similarly tied formally to a monarch.

Of 150 members of the Dutch Second Chamber (lower house of parliament), these standings resulted from the Nov2k6 elections:

Christian Democrats .....2,608,573.....41 seats (largest vote-receiver)
Labour Party ..................2,085,077.....33 seats (2nd largest vote-receiver)
ChristenUnie .....................390,969......6 seats (7th largest vote-receiver)