Following the Dutch general election on 17 March 2021, a cabinet formation led to the establishment of the fourth Rutte cabinet in 2022. The coalition included the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), Democrats 66 (D66), Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and Christian Union (CU), the same parties from the preceding third Rutte cabinet. This formation process, lasting 299 days, was the longest formation in Dutch history.

At the start of the formation, notes from the scouts, which included the text "position Omtzigt, function elsewhere", became public. It was revealed that VVD leader and demissionary prime minister Mark Rutte had discussed CDA MP Pieter Omtzigt, despite initially denying it. This revelation led to distrust in Rutte among potential coalition partners. Subsequently, informateur Herman Tjeenk Willink was tasked with exploring ways to restore confidence and facilitate the formation of a new cabinet.

In the subsequent months, informateur Mariëtte Hamer sought a majority coalition comprising a combination of VVD, D66, CDA, PvdA, GroenLinks (GL) and CU. However, without substantive negotiations, blockades were put up between these parties. Informateur Johan Remkes then explored a minority coalition or an extra-parliamentary cabinet, but these efforts also failed. Due to the deadlock, D66 lifted its blockade against a majority coalition with the CU. Led by informateurs Remkes and Wouter Koolmees, VVD, CDA, D66, and CU negotiated and presented a coalition agreement on 15 December 2021. Under formateur Rutte, ministers were selected and sworn in on 10 January 2022.

Background The third Rutte cabinet resigned in January 2021 following a report on the Dutch childcare benefits scandal. One of the driving forces behind the exposure of the scandal was CDA MP Pieter Omtzigt. Omtzigt ran in the CDA leadership election but narrowly lost to Hugo de Jonge and was subsequently placed second on the party's candidacy list. When De Jonge stepped down, the party board chose Wopke Hoekstra as party leader over Omtzigt. The opposition he had encountered led to a burn-out, as a result of which Omtzigt took leave before the elections without being replaced.

As the election of March 2021 took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, parties wanted a short cabinet formation. Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) Mark Rutte even suggested dividing the formation into two parts, with parties first collectively working on a recovery plan for the Covid crisis.

During the campaign, some parties expressed preferences for coalition partners. The Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and VVD ruled out cooperation with the radical-right Party for Freedom (PVV) and Forum for Democracy (FvD). The VVD explicitly indicated a desire to govern with the CDA. GroenLinks proposed that a coalition with D66 and PvdA, but both parties rejected this. GroenLinks and PvdA stated they would only join a cabinet together or with the Socialist Party (SP). Unlike previous elections, the SP did not rule out cooperating with the VVD and did not impose another left-wing party in the cabinet as a condition. After appointing Esther Ouwehand as leader, Party for the Animals (PvdD) was open to joining a cabinet. Meanwhile, D66 and Christian Union highlighted their differences on medical-ethical issues, making their cooperation unlikely.

Election results

In the election, the liberal parties VVD and D66 both gained seats, with D66 becoming the second-largest party and VVD maintaining its position as the largest party. This was the first time since the 1998 election that a sitting cabinet won seats. FvD gained the most seats, growing from two to eight seats. PvdD was the only other sitting party that managed to grow, with one seat. Four new parties (Volt, JA21, BIJ1 and Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB)) joined parliament. Seventeen parties were elected, the highest number since 1918. Because of this fragmentation, a majority cabinet had to consist of at least four parties. The radical right (JA21, PVV, and FvD) achieved their best result ever with 28 seats, while traditional left parties (GroenLinks, PvdA, and SP) were at a historic low with a combined 26 seats.

Scouts Jorritsma and Ollongren

On 18 March, the expected seventeen parliamentary leaders met to discuss the formation, and to select a scout to investigate which coalitions would be possible. In addition to the custom that the largest party to provides the scout, D66 insisted on a second scout from their party. Subsequently, VVD Senate leader Annemarie Jorritsma and D66 Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Kajsa Ollongren were appointed as scouts. On 22 and 23 March the scouts interviewed expected parliamentary leaders on their coalition preferences.

Coalition preferences + Ranking of coalition preferences among voters # EenVandaag (18 March 2021) Seats 1 VVD + D66 + CDA + ChristianUnion 78 2 VVD + D66 + CDA + Volt 76 3 VVD + D66 + CDA + PvdA 82 4 VVD + PVV + CDA + FvD + JA21 77 5 VVD + D66 + PvdA + SP + GroenLinks 84 # Peil.nl (28 March 2021) Seats 1 VVD + D66 + CDA + JA2176 2 VVD + D66 + PvdA + SP + GroenLinks 84 3 VVD + CDA + D66 + PVV 90 4 VVD + D66 + CDA + ChristianUnion 78 5 VVD + D66 + CDA + PvdA 82

VVD and D66 had different coalition preferences. VVD leader Mark Rutte wanted to "look seriously" at a center-right coalition with D66, CDA and JA21. However, D66-leader Kaag found collaboration with JA21 "difficult to imagine" and preferred a progressive coalition, without naming parties. Collaboration with one of the left-wing progressive parties, on the other hand, was only an option for Rutte after considering CU.

A number of parties were open to cabinet participation. PVV leader Geert Wilders said that a right-wing coalition of VVD, CDA, PVV, FvD and JA21 should be investigated, but this was ruled out by VVD. JA21-leader Joost Eerdmans supported Rutte's wish to form a right-wing cabinet of VVD, D66, CDA and JA21. Lilianne Ploumen said PvdA was open to cabinet participation, provided that SP or GroenLinks also joined. GroenLinks-leader Klaver was also open to government participation in an "as progressive as possible cabinet". PvdD leader Esther Ouwehand also argued for a cabinet that was as green and progressive as possible.

Most other parties were hesitant about joining a cabinet at this stage for various reasons. CDA-leader Wopke Hoekstra said he had no desire to join a "liberal block", referring to VVD and D66. As the tenth political group in terms of seats, CU-leader Gert-Jan Segers considered it strange if negotiations started with CU. SP-leader Lilian Marijnissen thought that coalition participation was not obvious given the electoral defeat. Although FvD leader Thierry Baudet indicated on election evening that cabinet participation was possible, he no longer expected this after talking to the scouts. Although there was speculation about cabinet participation by newcomer Volt, party leader Laurens Dassen was cautious about this. The other groups, with three or fewer seats, all indicated that cabinet participation was not an option for them.

The scouts also spoke with the president of the Senate, Jan Anthonie Bruijn. He indicated that a majority in the Senate was 'preferable', but added that in recent years it had become apparent that a government can still succeed in realizing its legislative agenda in the absence of such a majority. Of the proposed coalitions, only the combination of VVD, D66, CDA, PvdA and GroenLinks had a majority in the Senate.

"Position Omtzigt, function elsewhere"

From the start, the scouts considered CDA pivotal within the formation. According to them, Omtzigt's position was a circumstance that could hinder coalition participation. They brought this up in a conversation with speaker of the House of Representatives Khadija Arib on 19 March. They indicated that they found the deadline of 30 March unfeasible. They thought it would be best to wait until the official results of the elections would be known on 26 March, which would show whether Omtzigt had more preference votes than party leader Hoekstra (which turned out not to be the case). Jorritsma called Omtzigt's position a problem for coalition formation and 'untenable'. Arib did not agree to the request, because she thought it was inappropriate to talk about people in the scouting phase. The content of this conversation was not mentioned in the scouts' final report and only revealed a year and a half after the formation.

On 25 March, Rutte and Kaag were due to hold a second meeting with the scouts separately. However, after arriving at Binnenhof, where the meetings were to take place, Ollongren learned that she had tested positive for COVID-19 and had to go into quarantine. On the way to her car, Ollongren's notes about the formation were photographed by an ANP photographer. Among other things, it read: "position Omtzigt, function elsewhere" (). An hour and a half after the notes were leaked, Jorritsma and Ollongren resigned as scouts.

Several party leaders insisted on a debate about the leaked notes. Also on behalf of Kaag, Rutte indicated that same day that neither of them had said anything about Omtzigt in their conversations. In the same interview, Rutte indicated that the scouts could not be summoned for debate, because they had already resigned. Arib therefore asked Jorritsma and Ollongren as private persons to explain the notes, to which both agreed.

1 April debate Before the debate on April 1, all discussion reports were made public. This showed that Rutte and the scouts had discussed Omtzigt, specifically about a possible ministership. After the announcement, Ollongren planned to resign as minister that same day. When Rutte heard this through Jorritsma, he called Ollongren to advise against it. Ollongren then decided to wait for the debate. It was agreed with Kaag that the D66 faction would support a motion of no confidence against her.

However, during the debate the focus was mainly on Rutte. He indicated that he had no memory of discussing Omtzigt. After questions from Baudet, it also turned out that Rutte had heard "via-via" about the contents of the meeting reports several hours before the other party leaders. Rutte did not want to reveal who had called him about this. A motion of no confidence against Rutte as prime minister was rejected along the lines of the demissionary cabinet. All parties except the VVD supported a motion of censure by coalition parties CDA and D66 against Rutte as faction leader.

After the debate and the vote, SP and CU ruled out cooperation with VVD as long as Rutte was in charge. The youth parties of D66, CDA, PvdA, PvdD, GL and DENK encouraged their parent parties to do the same. Polls immediately after the debate also showed that 60% of voters did not want their party to enter into a coalition with VVD led by Rutte.

Scouts Van Ark and Koolmees

After Ollongren and Jorritsma resigned, the ministers Tamara van Ark (VVD) and Wouter Koolmees (D66) were appointed as scouts on 25 March. At the request of House of Representatives, they delayed meetings until after the debate with the scouts who had resigned. During this debate, however, the House passed a motion to request a new independent scout. A day later on 2 April, Koolmees and Van Ark officially resigned.

Informateur Tjeenk Willink