The cabinet was a centre-right coalition and had a slim majority in the House of Representatives with Christian Democratic Leader Jan Peter Balkenende serving as Prime Minister.

[1] On 24 January 2003 Queen Beatrix asked Minister of Justice Piet Hein Donner (CDA) to lead the coalition negotiations.

The cabinet program is based around the slogan: Mee doen, Meer Werk, Minder Regels (Participation, More Jobs, and Fewer Rules).

The cabinet seeks to address the problems of integration of ethnic minorities (participation), the economic recession (more employment) and the lack of trust in government (Fewer Regulations).

The most controversial issue the cabinet addressed is the perceived lack of integration of ethnic minorities, especially immigrants from Morocco and Turkey.

The cabinet appointed Rita Verdonk (VVD) as a Minister without Portfolio within the Ministry of Justice with the responsibilities for Integration, Immigration and Asylum Affairs.

This income requirement has been decreased back to 100% of the minimum wage in 2010 as a result of the judgement of the EU Court in the Chakroun case.

The cabinet took power at a time when the Netherlands' economy was in poor shape, with increasing unemployment and slight economic contraction.

To jump start economic growth, the cabinet has proposed tax cuts and reform of the system of social welfare.

Among other measures, free dental care, physiotherapy and anti-conception medication were cut, 12000 positions were to be eliminated in the armed forces and some of their bases closed, the link between benefit payment rates and salaries was to be broken, and the rental housing subsidy was reduced.

A proposal to do this by former Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Klaas de Vries (PvdA) in 2001, under the second Kok cabinet, was rejected in second reading by the Senate.

This would involve a mayor, directly elected by the city's population, who would have considerable power to take care of security and public order.

They perceived the policy on migration and integration as too hard and causing polarization between Dutch people and immigrants, and the economic reforms and budget cuts as untimely, because of the recession.

The former Christian-Democratic Prime Minister Dries van Agt and former leader of the parliamentary party, De Vries, criticized the cabinet for its anti-social policy.

State Secretary for Higher Education Mark Rutte left the cabinet to become parliamentary leader of the VVD on 28 June 2006.

However, in a crucial moment during the debate, member of parliament Van Beek asked the Prime Minister about the purpose of the apology.

Shortly after, Prime Minister Balkenende announced that all remaining members of the cabinet would offer their resignations (portfolios) to Queen Beatrix.

In the meantime, VVD and CDA blamed D66 for the cabinet's demise: they argued that Verdonk did in fact respect the wishes of parliament when she ordered the re-examination of Hirsi Ali's passport position.

Lousewies van der Laan countered that she wanted only Verdonk and not the entire cabinet to resign, and that it was about the coerced statement, which she interpreted as abuse of power by the minister.

According to the FD, Balkenende made an "expensive miscalculation" and the coalition was not able to cope with "accumulation of governmental screw ups, ego maniacal told-you-so attitude and political profiteering".

NRC Handelsblad's main editorial praised D66 and put the blame on Balkenende for not being able to limit the damage to a single minister.

[13] The timing of the cabinet collapse was poorly chosen for the two remaining coalition parties: the economy was improving after 3 years of harsh reforms and little growth; finally, more people were working and unemployment rates showed a decline.

[15] Maxime Verhagen of the CDA and Mark Rutte (VVD) also gave their support for this solution when they were invited for consultation with Beatrix.

Two important considerations were imminent for them: the Dutch military NATO mission to Uruzgan, Afghanistan, and the decision on the 2007 budget to be made in September 2006.

In an interview with NRC Handelsblad on 1 July, Alexander Pechtold raised his suspicion that VVD and CDA had already for a long time been prepared to drop D66 from the coalition in favor of the support by Pim Fortuyn List (LPF).

[16] According to Pechtold this explained the reluctance of VVD and CDA ministers to offer constructive solutions at the height of the crisis.