Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende was present in parliament for a record 17 hours between 10.15am Thursday and 3am on Friday, the Telegraaf reports.

The marathon sitting began with the debate on the cabinet’s plans to increase the state pension age and ended with new legislation to speed up planning procedures.
MPs were angry last week when the prime minister refused to attend the pension debate scheduled for last Thursday. They agreed to postpone it until this week.