Duties of the formateur

After the informateur has recommended a coalition and the key themes of the shared policies have been set out in the Coalition Agreement, the Queen appoints a Cabinet formateur, who in most cases is the intended Prime Minister. He concludes the formation talks.

The ministerial posts or “portfolios” are divided among the coalition parties on the basis of the number of seats they have in Parliament. As a rule, the largest party provides the Prime Minister and the largest number of ministers. The formateur will then look for people who want to become ministers or state secretaries on behalf of the coalition parties. When the team is complete, the new Cabinet holds a so-called constituent assembly, where the ministers must state that they agree with the Coalition Agreement. Following the constituent assembly of the new Cabinet, the formateur reports to the Queen.

The duration of the Cabinet formation
In the Netherlands, the formation a Cabinet may be a lengthy process. The formation may be completed in a couple of weeks or take as long as well over half a year. The parties who are to form a Cabinet have to reach an agreement, which is not always easy.
A formateur will try to form a Cabinet as quickly as possible. Long-lasting Cabinet formations are problematic, because the outgoing Cabinet can only deal with current affairs. Politically controversial issues are put aside until the new Cabinet takes office. The duration of the formation of a Cabinet in the Netherlands may vary from several weeks to over half a year. The shortest formation, that of the Beel II Cabinet in 1958, took ten days. The longest formation took 208 days, that of the Van Agt I Cabinet in 1977. For comparison: the formation of the Kok II Cabinet took 89 days and the formation of the first Balkenende Cabinet 66 days.