Second cabinet of Wim Kok

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The Second cabinet of Wim Kok was the government of the Netherlands headed by Prime Minister Wim Kok during 1998 to 2002.

After the Tweede Kamer elections of May 6, 1998, the allocation of the 150 seats was:

Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) 45
Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD) 38
Christen Democratisch Appèl (CDA) 29
Democraten 66 (D66) 14
GroenLinks (GL) 11
Socialistische Partij (SP) 5
ChristenUnie (CU) 5
Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij (SGP) 3

ChristenUnie was formed from the combination of two parties, GPV and RPF, which had contested the elections separately.

The new cabinet was the successor of the first cabinet of Wim Kok and was formed from the same coalition of PvdA, VVD and D66. It was also known as the 'tweede paarse kabinet' ('second purple cabinet') called such because it contained both the social-democratic PvdA (red) and the liberal VVD (blue). The aim of the cabinet was to continue the policy of cabinet Kok I, which was concerned with economizing, tax reduction and making an end to unemployment. Wim Kok was the prime minister, Annemarie Jorritsma as the vice-prime minister for the VVD, and Els Borst for D66. The cabinet was considered boring, because both left-wing and right-wing political parties were a part of it. There was no strong opposition in the parliament. This cabinet was notable for resigning twice; once in May 1999 when D66 stepped out of the coalition when its legislation was blocked - through negotiations the cabinet was "glued" back together again; then on 16 April 2002, when it resigned over the NIOD report into the fall of Srebrenica in 1995. It remained in place as a "caretaker" cabinet until 22 July 2002, when it was replaced by the first Balkenende cabinet.


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