Misplaced Pages

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37-619: In 2005 it was decided to depolder the Hedwigepolder in order to restore the natural quality in the Western Scheldt . This decision was controversial in Zeeland and Dutch politics, which delayed it. In October 2022, a start was made with the depoldering. The area was already diked before the Eighty Years' War . During this war, Dutch soldiers in 1584 for strategic reasons ( inundation ) breached

74-416: A conflict between the two countries, because according to them the depoldering could have prevented the ruling. In October 2009, a study confirmed again that there was no real alternative to depoldering. It was stipulated in the treaty that the work had to be completed by the end of 2009, and the port of Antwerp announced that it would consider a claim for damages (estimated annual damage € 70 million) if this

111-627: A letter to the cabinet, the European Commission expressed itself very critically about the intention not to depolder the Hedwigepolder, because the Commission doubted whether this would comply with the mandatory nature restoration. That same month, the Council of State also ruled in a case brought by the Zeeuwse Milieufederatie  [ nl ] . The Zeeland Milieufederatie had brought

148-464: A majority, but they were against forming a proper coalition with PVV because of their different views on Islam and immigration. Therefore, negotiations were held to form a coalition agreement between the VVD and CDA), and to form a "parliamentary support agreement" between all three parties, which were successfully finished on 30 September 2010. When Rutte took office on 14 October, it marked the first time that

185-656: A majority. A small protestant party, the Reformed Political Party , which obtained one seat, supported the cabinet in the Senate however. The cabinet consisted of 12 Ministers and 8 State secretaries . The positions where divided equally among the coalition members, regardless of their respective size: People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (31 seats in parliament) supplied 6 Ministers and 4 State secretaries, and Christian Democratic Appeal (21 seats) also supplied 6 Ministers and 4 State secretaries. In accordance with

222-413: Is on the north bank. Pedestrians, cyclists, and moped riders are not allowed in the tunnel and must travel through it by bus. The double-decker car ferries that serviced the two Western Scheldt crossings until 2003 were sold to Italian companies. The Queen Beatrix (renamed Tremestieri ) and Prince Johan Friso (renamed Acciarello ) were adapted for the crossing between Messina and Villa San Giovanni on

259-678: The First Canadian Army during the Battle of the Scheldt . Recently, the Western Scheldt has been exploring the concept of "wisselpolders" or "exchange polders", a sedimentation enhancing strategy , to offset land loss , enhance flood safety and create new land. One example is the Perkpolder project. In mid-March 2003, a 6.6-kilometre (4.1 mi) tunnel under the Western Scheldt opened,

296-513: The House of Representatives but had confidence and supply from the Party for Freedom (PVV) for a slim majority with Liberal Leader Mark Rutte serving as Prime Minister . Christian Democratic Leader Maxime Verhagen served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Affairs , Agriculture and Innovation . The cabinet served in the early years of the 2010s. Domestically, it had to deal with

333-592: The Kruiningen -Perkpolder ferry was discontinued without replacement. 51°24′N 3°43′E  /  51.400°N 3.717°E  / 51.400; 3.717 First Rutte cabinet Political career Prime Minister of the Netherlands First Ministry and term Second Ministry and term Third Ministry and term Fourth Ministry and term Affiliations [REDACTED] The first Rutte cabinet , also called

370-569: The Labour Party (PvdA) was briefly looked at, but dismissed. Then negotiations for a " purple plus " coalition consisting of the VVD, PvdA, Democrats 66 and GreenLeft lasted for about three weeks, but the parties could not reach agreement on the amount of budget cuts. Finally, a construction which is rare for the Netherlands was investigated: a minority coalition consisting of the VVD and Christian Democratic Appeal (together 52 out of 150 seats in

407-521: The Party for Freedom Geert Wilders decided to talk with each other about new, severe austerity measures, worth about 14 billion Euro. The negotiations about the measures were held in the Catshuis and lasted 7 weeks and ended on 21 April when Geert Wilders walked out of the negotiations. The reason he gave was that the measure would negatively impact people who receive benefits from the pensions law . Both Mark Rutte and Maxime Verhagen blamed Wilders for

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444-549: The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) approach to laissez-faire and a small government , the number of ministers and State Secretaries was reduced from the previous cabinet by merging several ministries. The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality was merged with the Ministry of Economic Affairs to form a combined Ministry Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation . The Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and

481-548: The Rutte–Verhagen cabinet was the executive branch of the government of the Netherlands from 14 October 2010 until 5 November 2012. The cabinet was formed by the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the Christian-democratic Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) after the election of 2010 . The cabinet was a right-wing coalition and had a minority in

518-647: The Sigmaplan  [ nl ] , they proposed the depoldering of part of the Prosperpolder  [ nl ] . Work on the depoldering of the Hedwigepolder should have started at the end of 2007. The plan to depolder the Hedwigepolder led to resistance within the Provincial Council of Zeeland and within the Dutch House of Representatives. The Belgian landowner Gery de Cloedt also refused to sell his land in

555-501: The port of Antwerp accessible. It was also agreed to create six hundred hectares of nature outside the dykes. This was necessary because nature in the Western Scheldt had deteriorated in previous decades, as a result of which people no longer complied with the European Birds Directive and Habitats Directive . Within the Netherlands, therefore, the depoldering of Hedwigepolder was proposed. In Flanders, where people worked on

592-580: The CDA parliamentary fraction indicated to have difficulties with the cabinet. Eventually they left the parliament or supported the deal, pointing to the approval by the majority of the party conference. When the cabinet took office, the three parties had a minority in the Senate of 35 out of 75 seats. The parties hoped this would change following the Dutch Senate election of 2011 , but they obtained 37 seats, one short of

629-578: The Environment was merged with the Ministry of Transport and Water Management to form the new Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment . The portfolio of public security was transferred from the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations to the Ministry of Justice which was renamed as the Ministry of Security and Justice , in line with the tough security profile of the coalition parties, especially

666-503: The Hedwigepolder, stalling the depoldering. In the spring of 2007, Minister of Agriculture and Nature Gerda Verburg announced that she would proceed with expropriation, despite a parliamentary motion adopted in 2006 against involuntary land expropriation. After the Dutch Senate also opposed the plans in 2008, Verburg announced that he would look for alternatives in a larger area than had been searched until then. The Western Scheldt Nature Restoration Committee then conducted research into

703-599: The House of Representatives), supported in parliament by the Party for Freedom (PVV, 24 seats), to make the smallest possible majority of 76 seats. The right wing PVV had the largest gains in the recent elections. The stated reason for this construction was that parties agreed that the largest party (the VVD) and the party with the largest gains (considered the 'winner' in Dutch politics) needed to be in power. Only CDA could or wanted to help make

740-722: The Italian mainland. With the opening of the road tunnel, the Breskens - Vlissingen ferry was restricted to pedestrians and cyclists. It is operated by Westerschelde Ferry BV, a subsidiary of the province of Zeeland . The service initially used former car ferries, but as of 2 May 2004 it employs two " small waterplane area twinhulls " (swaths, similar to catamarans ), built at the Royal Schelde Group in Vlissingen (Flushing), and named Prins Willem Alexander and Prinses Máxima . Upstream,

777-466: The Party for Freedom. The cabinet fell just 18 months into its term on 23 April 2012 after the Party for Freedom withdrew its support following a disagreeing with the coalition over stronger austerity measures to reduce the deficit following the financial crisis. The cabinet continued in a demissionary capacity until it was replaced by the second Rutte cabinet following the election of 2012 . Following

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814-399: The VVD had led a government since its formation in 1946. It also marked the first liberal -led government since 1913. Opposition parties and commentators expected that the coalition would prove to be unstable because at a special Christian Democratic Appeal conference, about a third of the party members voted against the formation of this cabinet. Also, at least three members of parliament in

851-451: The VVD which delivered both the minister and state secretary for this department. Also the position of the Minister for Development Cooperation , a long serving Minister without portfolio title that had been used continuously since 1965 (except for a small break from 2002 to 2003), was scrapped and replaced by the return of a Minister without portfolio for Immigration and Asylum Affairs like in

888-534: The Western Scheldt Tunnel, running from Ellewoutsdijk in the municipality of Borsele ( Zuid-Beveland ) to Terneuzen in Zeelandic Flanders . It is the longest road tunnel in the Netherlands. The toll (2012) is €5 for cars and €2.50 for motorcycles . Prior to 2011, the charge for motorcycles was the same as for cars, but it was reduced following protests. The single toll station for both directions

925-421: The alternatives under the leadership of former minister Ed Nijpels . The committee concluded that the original plan for depoldering the Hedwigepolder was the best, because other alternatives were more expensive and more complicated, or were too far away to contribute to the nature around the Western Scheldt. In addition, Flanders indicated that it would only pay for the depoldering of the Hedwigepolder, as agreed in

962-465: The case out of dissatisfaction with the decision not to depolder the Hedwigepolder and argued that the deepening of the Scheldt would affect nature. The Council of State ruled in a preliminary ruling that it was uncertain whether the "natural features of the area" would not be affected. The Council of State therefore temporarily prohibited deepening. The ruling led to outrage among the Flemish government and to

999-423: The collapse of the fourth Balkenende cabinet on 20 February 2010, elections for the House of Representatives were held on 9 June 2010. As usual in Dutch politics, none of the parties had a majority and several informateurs were appointed to investigate the formation of a coalition cabinet. A broad coalition consisting of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and

1036-507: The depoldering of the Hedwigepolder were being reviewed, in consultation with Flanders. Among others local politician for the Partij voor Zeeland Johan Robesin  [ nl ] had insisted on this. On 16 June 2011 it was announced that the government wanted to Welzingepolder and Schorerpolder instead. This was criticized by, among others, the Vogelbescherming  [ nl ] ,

1073-509: The failure of the negotiations. As a result, the government resigned and a new election was called. On 16 December 2011, Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Piet Hein Donner (CDA) resigned after he was nominated as the new Vice-President of the Council of State succeeding Herman Tjeenk Willink . He was replaced as Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations by former Chairwoman of

1110-538: The fallout of the financial crisis of 2008 but it was able to implement several major social reforms to law enforcement , victims' rights and immigration . Internationally, it had to deal with the European debt crisis , the war on terror and the government support for the Task Force Uruzgan . The cabinet suffered several major internal and external conflicts because of the confidence and supply construction from

1147-605: The government of Flanders and the European Commission. Western Scheldt The Western Scheldt ( Dutch : Westerschelde [ˌʋɛs.tərˈsxɛl.də] ), in the province of Zeeland in the southwestern Netherlands , is the estuary of the Scheldt river. This river once had several estuaries, but the others are now disconnected from the Scheldt, leaving the Westerschelde as its only direct route to

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1184-424: The last intact dikes, after which Saeftinghe disappeared under water. In the 17th century , diking started again, and in 1907 the Hedwigepolder was the last area in the eastern corner of Zeelandic Flanders that was conquered from the sea. In 2005, the Netherlands and Belgium concluded four "Scheldt treaties", in which it was agreed, among other things, that the Western Scheldt would be deepened in order to keep

1221-599: The previous Cabinets Balkenende I , II and III , but this time this post was placed at the department and budget of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations instead of the Ministry of Security and Justice. Because of the financial crisis in the Netherlands and because of the rules of the Euro convergence criteria that the deficit should be maximum 3%, the Leaders of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy Mark Rutte , Christian Democratic Appeal Maxime Verhagen and

1258-581: The sea. The Western Scheldt is an important shipping route to the Port of Antwerp , Belgium . Unlike the Eastern Scheldt estuary, it could not be closed off from the sea by a dam as part of the Delta Works . Instead, the dykes around it have been heightened and reinforced. Over the years, many ships have sunk in the Western Scheldt. Following an agreement between the Dutch and Belgian governments in 1995, many of

1295-520: The treaties, and not for (more expensive) alternatives. In April 2009, the Dutch Council of Ministers decided against depoldering after all, because of the resistance in Zeeland and both Chambers. Instead, a plan from water boards was adopted in which nature outside the dykes must be constructed. The committee led by Nijpels had also investigated this alternative, but concluded that the nature objectives would not be achieved. In July 2009, by means of

1332-662: The wrecks have been removed to improve shipping access to Antwerp. It was expected that the last 38 wrecks in the shipping channel would be removed during 2003. The largest wreck, which was removed in June 2003, was that of the 131-metre (430 ft) long Alan-A-Dale , sunk in December 1944 during the Second World War by a German Biber midget submarine . The Western Scheldt was freed from German occupation in October and November 1944 by

1369-423: Was not fulfilled. On 9 October 2009, the cabinet decided to proceed with the depoldering after all. In January 2010, the Council of State ruled that the Scheldt could be deepened, contrary to the provisional ruling. This is because the consequences for nature were not so uncertain. The coalition agreement of First Rutte cabinet , which was drawn up during the cabinet formation in 2010 , stated that alternatives for

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