Dutch cabinet admits fault, averts crisis

A looming governmental crisis seems to have been averted last night, when cabinet sent a letter to parliament admitting it had not established a proper legal pretext for supporting the invasion of Iraq.

A report published by a special committee of inquiry chaired by the retired supreme court judge Willibrord Davids on Tuesday, had brought the government to the brink of crisis a day later. The committee had been charged with investigating the decision-making process surrounding the run-up to the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, which the Dutch supported politically, but not militarily.

The committee reported that prime-minister Jan Peter Balkenende had not shown adequate leadership and that his government had been “disingenuous” in representing its case for the war. According to Davids and his colleagues, it is doubtful a mandate existed for the invasion under international law. The prime-minister, however, had always maintained the contrary up until Wednesday.

Balkenende rejected criticism before agreeing with it

The government currently consists of the prime-minister Balkenende's Christian democrat CDA, Dutch Labour party PvdA and the orthodox Christian ChristenUnie. Mr. Balkenende, was also in power as the head of a caretaker government at the time of the Iraq invasion. PvdA, then a prospective partner in a future government that never materialised, opposed the war at the time.

Prime minister Balkenende was quick to object to the committee’s conclusions, ticking off the PvdA’s parliamentary representatives, who said they were ”disappointed and unpleasantly surprised” by the move. The PvdA’s parliamentary delegation promptly demanded “a different attitude,” from the prime minister “which better reflects the disquieting and harsh conclusions drawn by the committee,” as Mariëtte Hamer, the PvdA’s parliamentary leader, put it. Deputy prime minister André Rouvoet, leader of the ChristenUnie party, sided with prime minister Balkenende.

‘In hindsight’ cabinet admits fault

The prime minister and his deputies, representing the three governing parties, met twice on Wednesday in an attempt to align their response to the report. The parties finally came to an agreement late in the evening, sending a letter to parliament in which Balkenende’s cabinet admitted that “in hindsight” a “more adequate legal pretext under international law” should have been established before the invasion.

After the letter was sent, the cabinet ministers were immediately called to parliament for a debate on the matter which continued till late into the night.

The prime minister has vowed his cabinet would formulate a more elaborate response to the report published by the committee of inquiry next month.