General election set for June 9

Tuesday 23 February 2010

The general election will take place on June 9, slightly later than most pundits had expected, the state information service said on Tuesday afternoon.

The Christian Democrats and ChristenUnie will continue to run the country as a caretaker cabinet and the portfolios of the six Labour cabinet ministers have been reassigned to other ministers.

Justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin will take responsibility for home affairs, family minister André Rouvoet will move to education and culture and defence minister Eimert Middelkoop takes over integration and urban affairs.

Junior finance minister Jan-Kees de Jager will oversee the full finance ministry portfolio while junior transport minister Tineke Huizinga is to head up the housing and environment ministries.

Caretaker

In Dutch constitutional terms, the cabinet is now officially a caretaker cabinet, overseeing the running of the country until the election. A minority cabinet, which would have taken longer to put together, has technically more powers.

Because of their caretaker role, ministers must simply mind the shop and controversial legislation will be put on hold.

Once the election has been held it will then probably take months to create a new government.

With a majority government requiring at least 76 of the 150 seats in parliament, forming a coalition can be a tricky business. The longest cabinet formation took 208 days, the shortest just 10.

But experts are predicting a long wait this time round because if the opinion polls are to believed, the next cabinet may involve four political parties.

© DutchNews.nl

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