Two months after the election Jan Peter Balkenende formed his first cabinet, with a coalition of the CDA, the LPF and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).

The Christian Democratic Appeal, the largest opposition party, was led by newly elected leader Jan Peter Balkenende.

[5] He was elected the leader of Liveable Netherlands in November 2001, but he was expelled from the party after making controversial comments in an interview with De Volkskrant on 9 February 2002.

In the same month, he released the book De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars (The Wreckage of eight purple years) criticising the record of the governing coalition.

Months later, Van der Graaf stated his motivation was his belief that Fortuyn was exploiting Muslims as "scapegoats" and targeting "the weak members of society" in seeking political power.

This success is in part owed to its new leader Jan Peter Balkenende, who went on to become prime minister, and to its neutral attitude in the debate with Fortuyn, not having participated in the supposed ‘demonization’ by the political Left.

The power vacuum resulted in violent internal conflicts in LPF, which eventually led to the fall of the first Balkenende cabinet (CDA-LPF-VVD), which governed from 22 July 2002 to 16 October 2002.

The CDA once again became a coalition party after eight years in opposition (1994–2002) in a government which, however, became the shortest-ruling Dutch cabinet since the Second World War, lasting less than five months.