After the Dutch general election of 25 May 1977, a cabinet formation took place in the Netherlands. On 19 December 1977, this resulted in the First Van Agt cabinet. The coalition was formed by the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).
During the first five months, negotiations took place under formateur Joop den Uyl about a cabinet of Labour Party (PvdA), the largest party, CDA and D'66. This got stuck four times, and informateurs were asked to bring the parties together again. After the fourth time the break turned out to be permanent. Within a month, the CDA managed to reach an agreement with the VVD. Six members of the CDA parliamentary group — the loyalists — voted against the agreement, but tolerated the cabinet, so that the cabinet retained a majority.
The formation lasted 208 days and was then the longest Dutch cabinet formation.[a] Due to its long duration and unexpected outcome, it is known as the "mother of all formations".
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