January 1: A redivision of local government in South Holland and Utrecht comes into effect. Eleven existing municipalities are merged to form three new municipalities.
January 4: Prostitution in Arnhem's red light district, the Spijkerkwartier, ends. All prostitutes move to an industrial area on the outskirts of the city.
January 8: The remains of four babies are discovered in the backyard of a house in Beverwijk, North Holland. The woman living the house is arrested on suspicion of killing her four newborn children.
January 9: Protesters are removed from a forest in Schinveld, Limburg. The forest is cut down to facilitate airplanes landing at the NATO air force base in Geilenkirchen, Germany.
January 30: Willem Holleeder, kidnapper of Freddy Heineken in 1983, is arrested on suspicion of extortion of several real estate magnates, including murdered Willem Endstra. Holleeder is also suspected of leading one of the organized crime entities in Amsterdam.
February
February 1: An apartment complex on the Bos en Lommerplein, Amsterdam is evacuated as tests indicate that the building is about to collapse. Local authorities declare the building unfit for habitation, while the constructor offers the residents alternative housing.
February 3: Boris Dittrich resigns as fractievoorzitter of D66. He had indicated that his party would leave the government coalition if the mission to Afghanistan were approved, but said during the debate that this was a strategic remark aimed at swaying the opposition Labour Party to oppose the mission. This failed, and the admission led to widespread criticism within D66.
February 6: The Dutch government announces that it will return the art collection of Jacques Goudstikker to his heirs. The works of art had been confiscated by the Nazis during the Second World War. The Dutch government confiscated the works from the Nazi government in 1945 as "enemy assets."
March
March 1: The new health insurance system comes into force. The difference between private and mutual funds is lifted.
March 10: Hofstad Network trial: Jason Walters and Ismail Akhnikh are convicted for membership of a terrorist organisation, for attempted murder and for illegal firearms possession. Walters received a 15-year prison sentence, while Akhnikh is sentenced to 13 years in prison.
April 1: The party council of GreenLeft repeals the expulsion of Senate member Sam Pormes. He had been expelled from the party after lying about his involvement in terrorist activities.
April 20: Pub owner Thomas van der Bijl is shot dead outside his pub in Amsterdam. According to reports in De Telegraaf, police suspect that Van der Bijl had been involved in a failed smuggle of 30,000 kilos of narcotics. Van der Bijl was also believed to be a key prosecution witness in the trial against Willem Holleeder.
April 24: Medical authorities suspend the permit of the Radboud hospital in Nijmegen, Gelderland to perform heart surgeries, after an investigation reveals that the hospital fails the criteria.
May 16: Minister for Integration and Immigration Rita Verdonk says during a debate that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is not a Dutch citizen, after reports that she had lied about her name and situation during her asylum application. Hirsi Ali immediately leaves the House of Representatives
May 30: Wilhelm Schippers is sentenced to eight years in prison and forced treatment in a psychiatric institution. Schippers had fled from his forced treatment in the Veldzicht clinic in Balkbrug, Overijssel while on a leave, and killed a 73-year-old man in Amsterdam while on the run. The case leads to a review of all leaves from forced treatments.
July 6: Two Dutch children flee to the Dutch embassy in Damascus, Syria. They had been taken to Syria a few years earlier by their Syrian father. The children wish to be reunited with their Dutch mother, but the father insists on his paternity rights.
August 6: A staircase collapses during a concert in the centre of Utrecht. One person is killed, twenty people are injured.
August 8: The province of Groningen is hit by a magnitude 3.5 earthquake, the biggest ever to hit the region. The quake is caused by natural gas extraction from the Slochteren field.
August 14: Businessman René van den Berg is sentenced to five years in prison for an €85 million fraud.
September 13: A row starts over an interview with Minister of JusticePiet Hein Donner in the book Het land van haat en nijd (The Land of Hate and Malice). Donner says that democracy means that the sharia, Islamic legislation, can be introduced in the Netherlands as well.
September 14: Nova broadcasts the video testament of terrorism suspect Samir Azzouz.
September 19: Prinsjesdag: The government announces a budget surplus, the first since 2000
September 22: Former Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin is announced as the successor of Piet Hein Donner. Former Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment Pieter Winsemius succeeds Sybilla Dekker.
October
October 3: Police in Rotterdam show the media the reconstruction of the head of an unknown girl, whose remains had been found in several suitcases in the Meuse. It turns out to be a 12-year-old girl from Rotterdam called Gessica. Her father is arrested on suspicion of the murder.
October 12: Public broadcaster TROS says it considers cancelling the long running game showLingo. An uproar follows, in which even Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende gets involved.
October 13: Five marines are suspended after misbehaviour towards the local population during a training in Karasjok, Norway.
October 30: The voting computers for the November 22 general election are disapproved in 35 municipalities.
November
November 1: Eighteen horses drown on the Waddenzee shore near Marrum, Friesland is flooded after a storm. The other horses, over 100 in number, seek refuge on an incline in the pasture. They are guided to the mainland two days later.
November 28: Rita Verdonk requests an investigation into the election campaign of the VVD, after the official publication of the election results. Verdonk, the number 2 on the VVD list, received more votes than the lijsttrekkerMark Rutte.
November 30: The new House of Representatives passes a motion requesting a stop to the expulsion of around 26,000 asylum seekers who arrived in the Netherlands more than five years ago.
December
December 1: Eight-year-old Jesse Dingemans of Hoogerheide, North Brabant, is stabbed to death inside his elementary school. A 22-year-old man from the same village is arrested near the school a few hours later on suspicion of the murder.
December 1: Alleged Hofstad Network member Samir Azzouz is sentenced to eight years in prison for conspiring to commit a terrorist attack in the Netherlands. Three other suspects receive sentences of three to four years.
December 7: TV program Nova reports that Turkish-Dutch politician Fatma Koşer Kaya (D66) has been voted into parliament after a Turkish government officials had sent an e-mail to about 200,000 Dutch citizens of Turkish origin, asking them to vote for her. Koşer Kaya, who refused to speak about the issue of the Armenian genocide, was sixth on the list of candidates for D66, but received more than enough votes to be elected to parliament directly.
December 11: CDA, the Labour Party and the Socialist Party end their negotiations for the formation of a new government.
December 12: The House of Representatives passes a motion of censure against Minister for Integration and Immigration Rita Verdonk, who had indicated that she would not honour the motion it had passed on November 30.
December 13: Rita Verdonk loses the immigration portfolio after a 10-hour emergency meeting by the cabinet. The portfolio is taken over by Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin. In return, Verdonk receives the responsibility over youth care, prevention and probation.
December 22: Sara and Ammar, the two children who had fled to the Dutch embassy in Damascus, Syria on July 6, return to the Netherlands, after representatives of the Dutch government reach an agreement with the Syrian government and with the children's Syrian father.
December 24: Three men are arrested on the suspicion of murdering banker Willem Endstra in 2004. The DNA of one of the suspects had been found on the presumed murder weapon.
December 30: Talk show host Sonja Barend ends her career during a live show, after 40 years in the business. During the show, Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen announces that Barend has been awarded the title of Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
February 3: Joop van der Reijden, 79, former secretary of state, former chairman of public broadcaster NOS and of commercial television station Veronica
March 22: Ria Beckers, 67, former member of the House of Representatives for PPR and GreenLeft.
