Dutch king swears in new ruling coalition, Rutte's 4th

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch King Willem-Alexander swore in a new ruling coalition Monday, led for the fourth time by Mark Rutte, amid a nationwide coronavirus lockdown and policy challenges ranging from climate change and housing shortages to the future of agriculture.

The ceremony in the ballroom at the Noordeinde Palace in The Hague came after a record-breaking coalition formation process following athe March 17 general election that highlighted deep divisions in the splintered Dutch political landscape.

Rutte, 54, has already led three coalitions and is now set to become the Netherlands’ longest-serving prime minister despite only narrowly surviving a no-confidence motion in parliament in April.

He introduced his new team one-by-one to the king before they were formally sworn in by agreeing to the oath of office and then posing — socially distanced — for a photo.

Willem-Alexander wished them “good health and wisdom” in their new jobs.

The swearing-in of the new government also comes almost a year to the day since Rutte and his entire Cabinet resigned to accept political responsibility for a scandal involving the nation's tax office that wrongly labeled as fraudsters thousands of parents who claimed childcare benefits.

Even so, Rutte will lead a coalition made up of the same four parties that quit to end his third term. His fourth administration is made up of Rutte's conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, together with the centrist, pro-European D66, the center-right Christian Democratic Appeal and centrist Christian Union. Together, they command a narrow majority in the 150-seat lower house of Dutch parliament, but are in the minority in the upper house.

For the first time in Dutch political history, half of the senior Cabinet ministers are...