Officially the longest Cabinet formation post-WWII

The Cabinet formation process has been going on for 225 days, equalling the post-war record held by the no outgoing Rutte III Cabinet. This is evident from data provided by Parliament.com.

Negotiations about a coalition of VVD, D66, CDA, and ChristenUnie only started in early October. Before that, informateurs struggled for months to find a combination of parties willing to start formation talks. This was partly due to a crisis of confidence around VVD leader Mark Rutte and because various parties erected blockades to negotiate with each other.

Gert-Jan Segers of the ChristenUnie called the record "not pretty" on Monday. "That's why there is a lot of pressure to make decisions quickly," said Segers. According to him, progress has been made, but there is still a lot to do. Wopke Hoekstra of the CDA said he agreed. He emphasized the need to speed up. "But we also want to be careful."

Cabinet Rutte III stood on the stage 225 days after the elections, and that record will be broken on Friday. The negotiations took so long in 2017, among other things, because a large number of four parties - the same ones currently around the negotiation table - tried to reach an agreement. It also counted that they only had a narrow majority in parliament, and the coalition agreement was boarded up on many aspects.

This will not be the first record to bear Rutte's name if he does indeed lead the new Cabinet as expected. Earlier this month, Rutte III became the longest-serving caretaker Cabinet. With Rutte II, he overtook Ruud Lubbers' third Cabinet as the longest-serving post-war government. If Rutte is still at the head of the Cabinet at the beginning of August, he will also overtake Lubbers as the longest-serving post-war Prime Minister.