Imperial Cabinet of the Batavian Empire

The Imperial Cabinet of the Batavian Empire is the highest executive body of the Empire. The terms 'Imperial Government' and 'Imperial Cabinet' are often mixed. The Imperial Cabinet are the ministers and state-secretaries. The Imperial Government is literally the Imperial Cabinet + the governing parties and the Emperor.

Formation of the Imperial Cabinet
The Cabinet is completely appointed by the Emperor. But in reality there is much more behind it. It starts with the House election. The largest party can form a coalition, and as soon as that process is done they vote whom will be the informator consulati (Prime-Minister-Elect). The informator consulati is (very often) appointed Prime-Minister after this by the Emperor. Until that time the former Prime-Minister acts as demissionary Prime-Minister and will continue with his usual duties, and is still responsible to the new House.

After the Prime-Minister is appointed the demissionary Prime-Minister leaves office. The other ministers and state-secretaries stay in charge, but as acting ministers under the new Prime-Minister. The Prime-Minister then selects his contemplated ministers and nominates them. The House of Consuls then starts with hearing sessions in which they will critically question the ministers. Usually there is only one hearing session, but with larger and more serious ministries it could take longer. If a majority in the House wants a second hearing session there will be another session. This can take as long as the House wants till they deem that they have enough information to vote. The vote is never directly after the hearing session, it's always the day after. If the House votes to discourage the Emperor from appointing the minister, it is likely that the Emperor will adopt the advice, because the minister does not enjoy a mandate in the House of Consuls, however this is not always the case. The Emperor can also choose to appoint the minister anyway if there were, for example, a lot of abstentions or he deems the minister worthy despite the parliaments advice. The Prime-Minister can also choose to withdraw the nomination if it's clear that the minister won't receive a majority in the House, this happens rather less than rejections, because it's likely that the Prime-Minister will support his nominee till the end. The nominated minister can however choose to withdraw himself if a rejection is imminent.

After the appointment of a minister he can choose his own State-Secretary who will help him in fufilling his duties, as well as temporarily acting as minister in the case the minister is not able do his job. Sometimes the Prime-Minister (or the Emperor) recommends a State-Senator for the minister. The State-Secretaries are a member of the Imperial Cabinet, but do not attend the Council of Ministers.

As soon as all the State-Secretaries are appointed by the ministers, the ministers and the State-Secretaries go to the Imperial Palace where they will inform the Emperor of their policy, which will be in line with the agreement the government made. After that the Emperor will not meet regulary with the cabinet, and is only informed once a week by the Prime-Minister, though he can always call ministers with him to discuss policy.

Ministries
The Imperial Cabinet comprises of certain ministries. There are 16 ministries in total from which 2 are without portfolio. New ministries can be installed by executive order of the Emperor, though this has not yet happened.

The ministers appointed for the period 2048-2053 are all from the four governing parties: The Union of Social and Liberal Democrats, Loyalist Party, Christian Democrats and Green Progressive Party. State-Secretaries are mostly from the same party as the minister, but not neccasarily.

By-pass vacancy of a minister
In some cases a minister resigns during his term in office or is dismissed by the Emperor. Ministers can resign if they believe they are not the right person to execut the policy anymore, or have arguments with the Prime-Minister regarding the policy. If a minister misinforms the House of Consuls or fails to do his job properly they can motion of vote of no-confidence in which they will ask the Emperor to dismiss the minister. The minister will probably resign if such a vote of no-confidence is supported by a majority. If the minister does not resign they Emperor can force him to or simply dismiss him. It is in theoretically possible that the Emperor decides to keep the minister on any ways, but this rarely happens. The only scenario in which this is could happen is if elections are in a period of less than a few weeks or the cabinet is already demissionary.

The Emperor can also choose to dismiss a minister himself, this happens if the Emperor deems that the minister is not serving the Empire properly or the Emperor is misinformed by him. It could also be that the Prime-Minister asks for the ministers resignation but he refuses to, or simply if the a Emperor and the minister can't come to an agreement together.

In either way, the State-Secretary will become the acting minister. The Prime-Minister can than nominate a new person to become minister, this can also be the State-Secretary. The nominee must again attend the hearing sessions of the House and can afterwards be appointed minister. The new minister can choose his own State-Secretary although it is highly likely that it will be the same State-Secretary.

If the State-Secretary resigns together with the minister the Deputy Prime-Minister will act as temporarily minister until another ministers is appointed. If more ministers resign as the same time State-Secretaries of other ministers can be temporarily appointed as acting minister.

By-pass vacancy of the Prime-Minister
The Prime-Minister can, just like all the other ministers, resign or be dismissed because of a vote of no-confidence or all the others reason mentioned above. If the Prime-Minister resigns the Deputy Prime-Minister will automatically become the minister without other hearing sessions, as the post of Deputy Prime-Minister is mainly focused on filling in for a Prime-Minister vacany. The place of Deputy Prime-Minister will, as soon as he is appointed Prime-Minister, will be filled in by another ministers till another Deputy Prime-Minister has been nominated and appointed.

Mid-term cabinet resignation
A vote of no-confidence can also be motioned for the whole cabinet, if a majority in the House loses confidence in the ruling cabinet. That would also mean that the governing parties would partly need to vote in favour of the vote of no-confidence. Unlike a minister the cabinet can continue to govern as demissionary till all the new ministers are appointed, starting with the Prime-Minister, however it is likely that the Emperor will dissolve the House and call for re-elections, instead of appointing a whole new cabinet.

Withdrawal of legislative support
Sometimes a coalition party withdraws itself from the government, the ministers belonging to the party which withdrew support can choose to follow the party-line and resign. Ministers can also decide to serve on in the cabinet. In both cases the cabinet can serve on if they manage to form a so-called 'rump-cabinet' which serves till the next election. If they manage to form a rump-cabinet within 3 months they can keep governing. If they fail, the Prime-Minister will offer his resignation to the Emperor and the Emperor will dissolve the parliament.

List of former cabinets
The Batavian Empire has known 5 cabinets so far: Cabinet Montgomery-I, Cabinet Montgomery-II, Cabinet Northam-I and Cabinet Fornost-I.