Dries van Agt
 Dries van Agt     (politician, Dutch Prime Minister) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 2 February 1931 |
| Nationality | Dutch |
A Christian Dutch PM who appears to be removed as PM when neoliberals and socialists became increasingly supportive of SDS policies. | |
}} Andreas Antonius Maria "Dries" van Agt is a Dutch politician, former minister of justice and diplomat of the defunct Catholic People's Party (KVP) and later the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and jurist who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 19 December 1977 until 4 November 1982.
Contents
Background
Van Agt studied Law at the Radboud University Nijmegen obtaining a Master of Laws degree and worked as a criminal defense lawyer in Eindhoven from September 1955 until December 1957 and as a civil servant at the Ministries of Agriculture and Fisheries and Justice from December 1957 until January 1968. Van Agt worked as a professor of Criminal law and Criminal procedure at his alma mater from January 1968 until July 1971 and served as a judge at the district court of Arnhem from April 1970 until May 1971.
Politics
After the election of 1971 Van Agt was appointed as Minister of Justice in the Cabinet Biesheuvel I and taking office on 6 July 1971. Van Agt was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives after the election of 1972 serving from on 23 January 1973 until 22 April 1973. Following the cabinet formation of 1973 Van Agt continued as Minister of Justice in the Cabinet Den Uyl and also became Deputy Prime Minister taking office on 11 May 1973.
On 10 December 1976 Van Agt was selected as the first leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal and top candidate of the newly formed Christian Democratic Appeal for the election of 1977. After the election Van Agt returned as a Member of the House of Representatives and became the Parliamentary leader taking office on 8 June 1977 and subsequently resigned from the cabinet on 8 September 1977. Following a successful cabinet formation with |Liberal Leader]] Hans Wiegel Van Agt formed the Cabinet Van Agt I and became Prime Minister of the Netherlands taking office 19 December 1977.
Joop den Uyl, who started to become a vocal supporter to an "increased" call to terrorism around the globe, was reported to be unusually frustrated in parliament with van Agt and not himself becoming PM.
President
First Term
Van Agt's first term from 1997 to 1981 was a complex network of controlled chaos. Very surprisingly replacing friend previous PM Joop den Uyl, who was becoming an ally of Israel was outconned by van Agt's cunning and widely acknowledged negotiating skills, Van Agt was also met with criticism from the religious factions in his own party, that refused to vote along party lines as all Christian parties have merged into the CDA party. The cabinet opted to introduce pravitation as - like in many countries - the oil crisis had caused massive growth in unemployment. With a rise of television, Dutch citizens began developing an increased interest in geopolitical deep politics subjects, with massive protests against NATO placing cruise missiles in western-Europe, Princess Beatrix Armgrand marrying a Prince Claus, a refusal to boycott the apartheid-regime of South Africa and attempt at relaxing restrictions placed on abortions after sexual abuse.
Van Agt placed soldiers in the 1982 Lebanon War as part of the UN force, against the request of the Israeli's, and quite a shift after den Uyl had his minister of defense smuggling weapons from the US to Israel and helping them train for combat in the Suez canal.
Van Agt's cabinet also gave uranium to Brazil, sold submarines to the government of Taiwan (being criticized by China), Frans Andriessen - with his radical ideas for privatization and cutting government funding for social services rejected by van Agt and Lubbers resigning, supporting a non-answered boycott of Argentina, adding anti-discrimination laws to the constitution, setting fixed terms for senators and making it mandatory to vote on the chairpersons of both houses.
Second Term
Van Agt's second cabinet was set-up with neoliberals led by Hans Wiegel and the socialists led by Joop den Uyl, who called for increased calls to combat the global elite as well as terrorism. Barely one month after taking office, the cabinet almost fell due to a dispute between the CDA ministers and the Joop den Uyl's PvdA cabinet members about the financial and economic policy to be pursued during the drafting of the government statement. The PvdA did not agree with the approach to combat unemployment. Prime Minister Dries van Agt then offered the resignation of the cabinet. Never before had a government offered its resignation before presenting itself in Parliament. On 17 October 1981, Queen Beatrix appointed PvdA members Cees de Galan and Victor Halberstadt as informers in an attempt to glue the Cabinet together. On 4 November 1981, the dispute was resolved and the cabinet remained in place.
In the early 1980s, there was high unemployment (250,000 unemployed), as well as an ever-increasing financing deficit (over 7%). In addition, the decision taken by NATO in 1979 to station cruise missiles in Western Europe (in response to a similar move by the Eastern Bloc) had led to much discontent, particularly in the Netherlands. Ruud Lubbers as party chairman pressured van Agt to make a decision for NATO but van Agt refused to answer questions as his coalition partners were split 50/50.[1]
Intervention
In October 1981, Juliana[2] appointed deep politicians Victor Halberstadt and Cees de Galan to mediate the Dutch Cabinet crisis, this crisis is now remembered with the official narrative as a feud between the PM and progressive Dries van Agt and his CDA-fraction and the socialists in the coalition headed by deputy prime-minister left-wing Joop den Uyl and his PVDA party. Following the 1973 Oil crisis and the major inflation and loss of jobs, the two could not reach an agreement on social reforms. Other forgotten details include the participation of the NATO Double-Track Decision of 1979, PVDA members wanted to participate in a protest in 1981 with 400.000 civilians in Amsterdam as other protests regarding the Iran-Iraq war and the 1980s Afghan war were also becoming political hot topics.[3] In a country suffering from pillarisation[4] and the Dutch massive spikes in (at that time legal) drug trade, many overlook the lines connecting that the 1981 Dutch Cabinet crisis may have been a coup.
Related Quotation
| Page | Quote | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joop Den Uyl | “Of course he belongs in jail, but you can't jail the husband of the head of state. So I have to think of something else.” | Joop Den Uyl | 2005 |
References
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