[1] The government formation talks led to the installation of the Christian-social fourth Balkenende cabinet, composed of the CDA, PvdA and the Christian Union on 22 February 2007.

In the internal election of the conservative-liberal VVD, the more liberal State Secretary for Science and Higher education Mark Rutte beat the more conservative Minister without portfolio for Immigration and Integration Rita Verdonk.

Former Rotterdam alderman Marco Pastors and member of parliament for the LPF Joost Eerdmans formed Eén NL which emulated Fortuyn's policies.

Former VVD MP Geert Wilders recruited people for his new Party for Freedom, which would take part in the 2006 election.

Within the CDA, ministers Cees Veerman and Karla Peijs announced they would not return, as did state secretary Clemence Ross.

The sensitivity over these issues was underlined when the speaker of the Turkish parliament, Bülent Arınç, in response threatened the Netherlands with diplomatic action over this incident.

[8] Namik Tan, spokesperson for the Turkish Department of Foreign Affairs said that "we are deeply worried about the one-sided approach of our ally Netherlands’ political parties on the so-called Armenian genocide as this puts a limit on the freedom of expression.

"[9] Labour Party leader Wouter Bos later said that the term genocide is used too easily, and that he rather speak of the "Armenian Question.

"[10] A week before the election, De Volkskrant newspaper published a story saying that Dutch soldiers had "tortured" Iraqi prisoners in Iraq back in 2003.

Kieskompas (Electoral Compass) was launched by the newspaper Trouw in cooperation with the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in order to compete with the Stemwijzer.

(the "Who do You Vote for") of the IPP which helped find the perfect candidate by his/her age, sex, dietary habits and political experience[22] and the Stomwijzer (the "Stupid Pointer") which mocked the StemWijzer, but still gave reasonable voting advice[23] Comedian Freek de Jonge performed an "election show" (verkiezingsconference) on public television on the night before the election.

When asked whether this show would influence the upcoming election De Jonge stated he would make a fool out of everyone, not favouring a single person.

A major focus of this debate was the fact that more than 10% of people were said to live in poverty, as exemplified by the rising number of food banks.

Former minister and De Volkskrant columnist Marcel van Dam wrote a critical column on 22 June concerning Bos' proposal.

[26] The second man of the Christian Democratic Appeal Maxime Verhagen used soundbites from the proposal continually to emphasise that the PvdA was an unreliable partner for the elderly.

Verdonk's attitudes toward immigrants were again in the spotlight after her treatment of the crisis around the naturalisation of Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali caused the cabinet to fall.

The left-wing opposition parties PvdA, SP, GL and CU, joined by former coalition partner D66 wanted a general pardon for this group, granting them all a residence permit.

The CDA, VVD and the smaller right-wing parties of Geert Wilders and Marco Pastors opposed such a permit because it would attract illegal immigrants.

Minister Verdonk claimed that she had actually already taken care of these 26,000 asylum seekers, sending many back to their own country and granting many a residence permit.

A minor issue was the ban on burqas and other face-covering clothing in public which minister Verdonk announced on 17 November 2006.

Wilders of the Party for Freedom wanted a halt of immigration from non-Western countries, abolish double citizenship, and stop the building of new mosques.

During a speech of parliamentary chairman Maxime Verhagen, Greenpeace activists rolled down a large sign saying "CDA chooses for 240,000 years of nuclear waste," referring to the news a day earlier that the CDA junior minister of the environment Pieter van Geel was open to new possibilities for nuclear energy in the Netherlands.

[31][32][33] Other important events increasing the attention on environmental issues were the Stern Review of the United Kingdom government and the visit of Al Gore to Amsterdam promoting his movie An Inconvenient Truth.

GroenLinks focused on this issue during its campaigns and sponsored ads which read: "Who votes strategically when the polar caps are melting?

[citation needed] Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet threatened to bring minister Atzo Nicolaï to court since they were not convinced by his assurances that there would be no fraud in the election.

[39] Many municipalities, including Amsterdam, decided to switch to the traditional paper and red pencil method of voting instead of the SDU machines.

More than during previous elections, there was a strong focus on party leaders, especially Bos of PvdA and Balkenende of CDA, regarding who of the two might become prime minister.

The PvdA's Wouter Bos stated that he would not become a deputy prime minister in case Balkenende would lead a CDA-PvdA coalition.

[44] A poll among the young watchers after the debate showed that the Dutch children preferred Wouter Bos as the next prime minister (46%), before Marijnissen (26%), Balkenende (22%) and Mark Rutte (6%).

Participants were Jan-Peter Balkenende, Wouter Bos, Mark Rutte, Jan Marijnissen, Femke Halsema and André Rouvoet.