Second Kok cabinet

Second Kok cabinet in 1998

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.

The cabinet completed processes of liberalisation which were started by the previous cabinet: the legalisation of prostitution in 2000, same-sex marriage in 2001 and Euthanasia in 2002.

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, just one month before the next election, when prime minister Kok wished to resign over the NIOD report into the genocide 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			Title/Portfolio		Term of office	Party
		Wim Kok (born 1938)	Prime Minister	General Affairs	22 August 1994 – 22 July 2002	Labour Party
		Annemarie Jorritsma (born 1950)	Deputy Prime Minister / Minister	Economic Affairs	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
		Els Borst (1932–2014)	Deputy Prime Minister / Minister	Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport	22 August 1994 – 22 July 2002	Democrats 66
		Bram Peper (born 1940)	Minister	Interior and Kingdom Relations	3 August 1998 – 13 March 2000 ^[Res]	Labour Party
		Roger van Boxtel (born 1954)			13 March 2000 – 24 March 2000 ^[Ad interim]	Democrats 66
		Klaas de Vries (born 1943)			24 March 2000 – 22 July 2002	Labour Party
		Jozias van Aartsen (born 1947)	Minister	Foreign Affairs	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
		Gerrit Zalm (born 1952)	Minister	Finance	22 August 1994 – 22 July 2002	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
		Benk Korthals (born 1944)	Minister	Justice	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
		Frank de Grave (born 1955)	Minister	Defence	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
		Loek Hermans (born 1951)	Minister	Education, Culture and Science	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
		Tineke Netelenbos (born 1944)	Minister	Transport, Public Works and Water Management	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	Labour Party
		Haijo Apotheker (born 1950)	Minister	Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries	3 August 1998 – 7 June 1999 ^[Res]	Democrats 66
		Laurens Jan Brinkhorst (born 1937)			7 June 1999 – 22 July 2002
		Klaas de Vries (born 1943)	Minister	Social Affairs and Employment	3 August 1998 24 March 2000 ^[Appt]	Labour Party
		Willem Vermeend (born 1948)			24 March 2000 – 22 July 2002
		Jan Pronk (born 1940)	Minister	Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	Labour Party
Ministers without portfolio			Title/Portfolio/Ministry		Term of office	Party
		Roger van Boxtel (born 1954)	Minister	Urban Policy and Integration (within Interior and Kingdom Relations)	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	Democrats 66
		Eveline Herfkens (born 1952)	Minister	Development Cooperation (within Foreign Affairs)	3 August 1998 – 22 July 2002	Labour Party
Source: (Dutch) Kabinet-Kok II Rijksoverheid

^Appt Appointment: De Vries appointed Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.

^Res Resigned.

^{Ad interim} Van Boxtel served ad interim following the resignation of Peper.

Undersecretaries

See also Undersecretaries for a detailed description of the function.

• Foreign Affairs: Dick Benschop (PvdA)
• Justice
  • Job Cohen (PvdA), resigned December 31, 2000
  • Ella Kalsbeek, 2 January 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)