Catshuis, building a full history, center of power again after years

Today the cabinet met for a regular cabinet meeting for the first time since the summer holidays. Before that, these meetings were held in the Treves Hall, but due to the renovation of the Binnenhof, the Catshuis is the designated place at the moment.

This is not the first time: before Trêves Hall became the permanent meeting room of the Council of Ministers in 1977, the cabinet was already meeting every week in the Catshuis. For a long time the building was the setting for important events in the history of the Dutch parliament.

Since 1963, the Catshuis – named after the poet and politician Jacob Cats (1577-1660) who ordered its construction – has been the official residence of the Prime Minister. Dries van Agt was the last prime minister to live there. His successor Ruud Lubbers decided not to move into the building and the prime ministers who succeeded him did not, including the new Prime Minister Dick Schoof. However, during the renovation between 1999 and 2003, a private apartment was created on the first floor of the building that could be used by the Prime Minister.

Shortly after that renovation, in May 2004, a fire broke out, damaging much of the basement and causing smoke and water damage to other parts of the building. A painter died in the fire. The building was not used again until 2.5 years later.

Over the years, news and tall tales emerged about drinking by pastors at and around meetings in the 70s and 80s, including through VVD celebrity Hans Wiegel even celebrating a carnival there. There was also the famous picture of the minister at the time Roger van Boxtel, who did a handstand in the Katshuis garden during a cabinet meeting in 1999. The picture ended up on the front page of the Volkskrant.

In 2012, the Catshuis was the scene of an emergency negotiation between the partners of the coalition VVD, CDA and the partner that suffered from PVV. After the Central Planning Bureau announced that the budget deficit for 2013 will rise to 4.5 percent, delegations from the parties, including Mark Rutte (VVD), Maxime Verhagen (CDA) and Geert Wilders (PVV), came together to discuss about cuts. The weeks of talks came to nothing and that led to the so-called Catshuis crisis, which led to the dismissal of the cabinet by Rutte on 23 April.

The Catshuis was often used for emergency consultations, as there was a place to rest and gather in the garden. Politicians could also go out without having direct contact with journalists.

During the corona crisis, the Catshuis was often the place where ministers and experts met to discuss measures such as lockdown, curfew and masks. RIVM director Jaap van Dissel, one of the most famous faces in the corona pandemic in the Netherlands, was also a regular.