After the Dutch general election of 15 May 2002, a cabinet formation took place in Netherlands. This resulted in the First Balkenende cabinet on 22 July 2002. The coalition was formed by Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF).
Informateur Piet Hein Donner was tasked with exploring options for coalitions and later with facilitating the negotiations. At first, the VVD was hesitant to join the cabinet, but agreed to negotiations after a week. Internal problems of the new LPF at times hindered the negotiations. During the search for Ministers and State Secretaries under formateur Jan Peter Balkenende, the LPF had a harder time finding suitable candidates. Despite taking place shortly after the murder on 6 May of LPF's party leader Pim Fortuyn, the formation went relatively calmly and quickly.