Elections and the new cabinet
The November 2023 elections for the House of Representatives led to the formation of the Schoof cabinet. This cabinet, consisting of 16 ministers and 13 state secretaries, was sworn in on 2 July 2024. Prior to the swearing in, the House of Representatives held a series of hearings in which the prospective ministers and state secretaries presented themselves. You can read more about the process in this article.
Election results
Turnout at the elections held on 22 November was 77.7%. A total of 26 political parties took part in the elections, 15 of which secured enough votes for a seat in the House of Representatives. The PVV became the largest party with 37 seats, followed by GroenLinks-PvdA (25), VVD (24), NSC (20), D66 (9), BBB (7), CDA (5), SP (5), FvD (3), PvdD (3), CU (3), SGP (3), DENK (3), Volt (2) and JA21 (1).
Scout and informateur
The House of Representatives is in charge of the cabinet formation process. Two days after the elections, a "scout" was appointed by Vera Bergkamp, the then President of the House of Representatives, and the leaders of the newly elected parliamentary groups. The role of the scout is to explore the various options for the formation of a new cabinet with the parliamentary group leaders. On 11 December, the scout presented his findings, after which the House of Representatives debated his report and appointed an informateur. The informateur’s task is to facilitate negotiations between parties aiming to form a coalition. After the November 2023 elections, these parties were PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB.
New President of the House of Representatives
Meanwhile, the newly elected members of the House of Representatives took office on 6 December 2023. They elected a President: Martin Bosma (PVV). On 12 February, Bosma received the informateur's report. The House then debated it and appointed a new informateur, who finished his final report a month later. After another debate, the House appointed two new informateurs. Under their guidance, the four parties reached a framework coalition agreement on 16 May 2024.
The composition of the new cabinet
On 22 May, the House of Representatives debated the framework coalition agreement and appointed a formateur. The formateur's task is to select the members of the cabinet: the ministers and the state secretaries. Firstly, he presented intended Prime Minister Dick Schoof. The formateur and intended Prime Minister then chose the other members of the cabinet. After the hearings in June and the inauguration ceremony on 2 July, the Prime Minister delivered the Government statement of policy in the House of Representatives, setting out the intended policy of the cabinet, on which the House debated for two days.