Second Kok cabinet

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

After the elections to the House of Representatives on 6 May 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. The first time was in May 1999, when D66 stepped out of the coalition when proposed legislation entered by this party was blocked; through negotiations the crisis was solved and the cabinet stayed together. The second and final time was on 16 April 2002, close to the natural end of term for the cabinet, when prime minister Kok wished to resign over the NIOD report into the fall of Srebrenica in 1995 and the other ministers had no choice but to follow him. The Second Kok cabinet remained in place as a caretaker cabinet until 22 July 2002, when it was replaced by the first Balkenende cabinet.

Ministers

Prime minister, General Affairs	Wim Kok	PvdA
Vice Prime Minister, Economic Affairs	Annemarie Jorritsma	VVD
Vice Prime Minister, Public health, Wellbeing and Sports	Els Borst	D66
Foreign Affairs	Jozias van Aartsen	VVD
Justice	Benk Korthals	VVD
Interior and Kingdom Affairs	Bram Peper	PvdA	resigned March 13 2000
	Roger van Boxtel	D66	13 - 24 March 2000
	Klaas de Vries	PvdA	March 24 2000
Education, Culture and Sciences	Loek Hermans	VVD
Finance	Gerrit Zalm	VVD
Defense	Frank de Grave	VVD
Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment	Jan Pronk	PvdA
Transport and Water	Tineke Netelenbos	PvdA
Agriculture, Nature Management and Fishery	Haijo Apotheker	D66	resigned June 7 1999
	Laurens Jan Brinkhorst	D66	from June 8 1999
Social Affairs and Employment	Klaas de Vries	PvdA	resigned March 24 2000
	Willem Vermeend	PvdA	March 24, 2000
Development cooperation	Eveline Herfkens	PvdA
Large cities and integration policy	Roger van Boxtel	D66

Staatssecretarissen

See also Staatssecretaris for a detailed description of the function.

• Foreign Affairs: Dick Benschop (PvdA)
• Justice
  • Job Cohen (PvdA), resigned December 31, 2000
  • Ella Kalsbeek, 2 januari 2001
• Interior and Kingdom Affairs Gijs de Vries (VVD)
• Education, Culture and Sciences
  • Karin Adelmund (PvdA)
  • Rick van der Ploeg (PvdA)
• Finance
  • Willem Vermeend (PvdA), resigned March 24 2000
  • Wouter Bos (PvdA), from March 24, 2000
• Defense: Henk van Hoof (VVD)
• Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment: Johan Remkes (VVD)
• Transport and Water Monique de Vries (VVD)
• Economy Gerrit Ybema (D66)
• Agriculture, Nature Management and Fishery Geke Faber (PvdA)
• Social Affairs and Employment
  • Hans Hoogervorst (VVD)
  • Annelies Verstand (D66)
• Public health, Wellbeing and Sports: Margo Vliegenthart (PvdA)