1901 Dutch cabinet formation
The parties could obtain this by dissolution of the Senate, because they had also won significantly in the simultaneously held Provincial Council elections of 1901.
[2][a] On 2, 3 and 4 July, the queen Wilhelmina, who had ascended the throne in 1898, received her most important counselors; Chairman of the Senate Albertus van Naamen van Eemnes, Minister of State Johan George Gleichman and Vice-President of the Council of State Johan Willem Meinard Schorer.
The three counselors - with a liberal background - considered ARP leader Abraham Kuyper the most logical formateur.
Van Naamen van Eemnes advised the queen to ask for guarantees on a number of issues, such as Dutch neutrality in the Second Boer War, continuation of the Aceh War, as little state interference as possible in the social field and as minimum increase of import duties.
[3] Even before the discussions with the liberal counselors, she had asked the director of the Queen's Cabinet Petrus Johannes Vegelin van Claerbergen to seek advice from the anti-revolutionary state council Ulrich Herman Huber, the free anti-revolutionary leader Alexander de Savornin Lohman and the former ARP prime minister Æneas Mackay (who had to return from Austrian-Hungarian Teplice).
On 1 July, he also sent a request to the Catholic faction asking it to form a committee from among its members with whom the anti-revolutionaries could negotiate a government programme.
[8] His first task was to draw up the government programme, for which he contacted the Catholic delegate committee, the free anti-revolutionaries and the recently elected Jan Schokking (Frisian League).
The only Member of Parliament for the CHK, Johannes Theodoor de Visser, could not reach Kuyper due to a stay abroad.
Both Mackay and Lohman initially rejected him and Melvil van Lijnden himself also had doubts, but eventually agreed.
The first candidate for the ministership of the combined ministry was Hendrik Seret, but Kuyper concluded at the first interview that he was unsuitable.
[11] Kuyper initially had Catholic candidates in mind such as Harte van Tecklenburg and Gustave Ruijs de Beerenbrouck, but both Mackay and Lohman objected to this.
On 21 July, Kuyper had spoken with the Amsterdam anti-revolutionary councillor Theo Heemskerk, whom he previously had in mind for Finance.
Lohman feared that he would be approached again for the position of minister, which would put him in a dire situation because if he refused the formation would probably fail.
[15] To reduce the workload, he wanted to make the Agriculture Department an independent ministry, for which the anti-revolutionary Jacob Petrus Havelaar was approached on 26 July.
However, before Havelaar could announce that he accepted it, Kuyper had already decided to transfer Agriculture to Water Management, Commerce and Industry.
Because the Catholics had too much influence with three of the seven ministers, Navy remained as a separate ministry headed by the non-partisan Protestant Gerhardus Kruys.
[16] On 27 July Kuyper brought his final report to Vegelin van Claerbergen, who would hand it over to the queen.
This led to dissatisfaction with Wilhelmina, who believed that Kuyper had inappropriately sought publicity, after having previously published a confidential communication from her in the newspaper.
