Post by pieter on Feb 9, 2024 6:20:13 GMT -7
Andreas Antonius Maria "Dries" van Agt (2 February 1931 – 5 February 2024) was a Dutch politician and diplomat of the Catholic People's Party (KVP) and later its successor the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and jurist who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 19 December 1977 until 4 November 1982.
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Van Agt: from conservative figurehead to advocate of the Palestinians
Dik Verkuil
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Dries van Agt, who died on Monday at the age of 93 with his wife, was a idiosyncratic Brabander (*Southern Dutch Roman Catholic with a Soft G accent in Dutch) who accidentally ended up in politics as a minister in 1971, and would remain one of the leading players for eleven years. From a progressive lawyer he developed into the champion of conservative Netherlands, partly thanks to his openly displayed and perhaps played aversion to politics in general and to the left in particular.
He underlined his role as an outsider in the Dutch Political Capital The Hague (Amsterdam is the official Capital of the Netherlands) with, among other things, his unparalleled archaic language and his passion for cycling, a sport that he often seemed to consider more important than politics.
Van Agt retired from active politics at 64 and became active in the public sector as a non-profit director and served on several state commissions and councils on behalf of the government, he also served as a distinguished visiting professor of International relations, Peace and conflict studies and Governmental studies at the United Nations University, Kwansei Gakuin University, Kyoto University and Ritsumeikan University from February 1996 until May 2004. Following his retirement Van Agt continued to be active public sector and worked as an advocate, lobbyist and activist for the Anti-war movement, Human Rights and the Two-State solution in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Van Agt was known for his abilities as a skillful debater and negotiator. During his premiership, his cabinets were responsible for several major public sector and civil service reforms and further reducing the deficit following the recession in the 1980s. Van Agt continued to comment on political affairs as a statesman until he suffered a major stroke in May 2019 which forced him to undergo rehabilitation. He held the distinction as the oldest living and earliest serving former prime minister following the death of Piet de Jong in July 2016, until his own death in February 2024.
Prime Minister Dries van Agt with his wife, late seventies
Dries van Agt on a racing bicycle
Van Agt became the first leader of the CDA in 1977 and was then prime minister for five years. Previously, he was Minister of Justice on behalf of the conservative Catholic People's Party (KVP, Katholieke Volks Partij) in the Biesheuvel and Den Uyl cabinets. He was also deputy prime minister in the Den Uyl cabinet.
The Three of Breda
As Minister of Justice, Van Agt clashed with the House of Representatives in The Hague several times. The first time that happened was in 1972 when he wanted to release 'the Three of Breda'. Van Agt argued that there was no point in a longer stay in prison for these three German war criminals sentenced to life.
He had already predicted that it would not go down well if he "as an Aryan" were to nominate the three for pardon. That would have been easy for his Jewish predecessor Polak - a comment for which he later apologized. Yet he was surprised by the intensity of the reactions, including from the former resistance and from victims of German war crimes. Van Agt was so seriously threatened that he had to go into hiding with his family.
Impressed by the social resistance, the House of Representatives asked in a motion to refrain from pardoning. The Breda Three remained in custody, one of them later died in captivity and the other two were released in 1989.
The Four of Breda
The Four of Breda (later the Three, and later the Two of Breda) were German Nazi war criminals who served a life sentence. They were detained in the dome prison of the Dutch city of Breda and were the last German war criminals from the Second World War to be held in the Netherlands.
SS-Sturmbannführer, Willy Paul Franz Lages (5 October 1901 – 2 April 1971) was the German chief of the Sicherheitsdienst in Amsterdam during the Second World War. From March 1941 he led the so-called Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung (Central Bureau for the Jewish Emigration). As such, he was complicit in the mass deportations of 70,000 Dutch Jews to the concentration camps in Germany and occupied Poland. Lages also directly ordered multiple executions, including that of Hannie Schaft.
SS-Oberscharführer Joseph Johann (Jupp) Kotalla (14 July 1908 – 31 July 1979) was a German SS soldier who was head of the administration and de facto deputy commander of Kamp Amersfoort concentration camp during World War II. He belonged to the infamous "The Breda Four [nl]" and afterwards to the Drie van Breda (The Breda Three), while he was serving a life sentence in Breda Prison after the war. Kotalla is the only German war criminal who died in Dutch captivity.
SS-Hauptsturmführer Ferdinand Hugo aus der Fünten (17 December 1909 – 19 April 1989), widely known as Fünten, was head of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Amsterdam during the Second World War. He was responsible for the deportation of Jews from the Netherlands to the German concentration camps and was convicted as a war criminal.
Westerbork transit camp in (Durchgangslager Westerbork,) 1942: (from left to right) SS-Obersturmführer Albert Konrad Gemmeker and member of the SD (Sicherheitsdienst), SS Untersturmführer Hassel, SS-Hauptsturmführer Ferdinand aus der Fünten, member of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung in Amsterdam (Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Amsterdamm) and Mr. Scheltnes of Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co. Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co. or Liro Bank originally a Dutch Jewish bank, was seized and used by Nazis for looting Jewish property during the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II.
SS-Sturmscharführer Franz Fischer of the (Nazi) Kriminalpolizei and the Gestapo. Fischer was a fanatical persecutor of Jews in the Second World War. He was involved in the deportation of approximately 13,000 Jews from The Hague, of which around 12,000 died. He was also responsible for the mistreatment of Jews, 'Jewish supporters' and people who were married to Jewish women. Fischer belonged to the Four of Breda, later to the Three of Breda and finally to the Two of Breda. After the war, he served a life sentence for war crimes and was released in January 1989.
Lifetime
After the German occupation of the Netherlands, they were initially sentenced to death, but their sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by pardon. The cabinet was against commuting the death penalty, but partly because Queen Juliana had serious conscientious objections to carrying out the death penalty, it still granted a pardon. Minister of Justice Teun Struycken assumed that this would lead to release after twenty years.
Penalty break for Lages
Under the responsibility of Minister of Justice Ivo Samkalden, Lages was given a sentence break in 1966, because Dutch doctors believed that he was terminally ill, which later turned out to be untrue. He did not return to the Netherlands. After intestinal surgery in West Germany, he lived in freedom for almost five years.
Requests for clemency
In the late 1960s, the then Minister of Justice Carel Polak wanted to release the three remaining prisoners, but after advice from the Supreme Court he decided against this.
In 1972, emotional debates arose again. Minister of Justice Dries van Agt had hinted that he wanted to respond positively to a request for pardon from the Three of Breda, partly because the Supreme Court and the special criminal chamber of the Amsterdam District Court had now unanimously recommended granting a pardon. The release was canceled after a hearing advocated by Anneke Goudsmit (D'66) and a heated parliamentary debate on February 29, 1972, partly under the influence of strong and emotional resistance from society, especially from war victims' associations. Ultimately, the request for clemency was rejected after the Guardian motion was adopted in the House of Representatives.
Minister of Justice Dries van Agt during the debate on the Three of Breda (1972)
West German input
The West German government campaigned for their release from the 1960s onwards. During every bilateral contact between the Netherlands and the Federal Republic of Germany, the imprisonment of the remaining war criminals in Breda was a topic of discussion. The West German government supported them legally and financially. In the late 1970s, the West German ambassador brought a television and VCR for their cells. This remained prohibited for all other prisoners in 'De Koepel'.
Call for the release of the three during Queen Juliana's state visit to West Germany (1971)
Release
Kotalla died in Breda prison on July 31, 1979.
On July 5, 1988, on the initiative of banker and former resistance member Bib van Lanschot, nineteen prominent Dutch people wrote to Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers and Minister of Justice Frits Korthals Altes calling for the immediate release of the remaining two. They were old and did not have long to live. The letter was handed over personally without publicity. In addition to Van Lanschot, the signatories included former resistance member Hans Teengs Gerritsen, former Prime Minister Piet de Jong, former Minister of Justice Samkalden (now Minister of State) and other previous opponents of early release.
On January 27, 1989, the remaining two were released at the instigation of Korthals Altes. He received permission from the House of Representatives for this through a PvdA (Labour) motion that was rejected by 88 to 55 votes, calling for this to be abandoned. At the start of the House of Representatives debates on the proposed release, Korthals Altes recalled the letter from the 'group of nineteen'. The same day that the motion was rejected, the two war criminals were deported across the border as unwanted aliens near Venlo. Shortly after its release, Teengs Gerritsen would express regret about co-signing the letter.
The writer and survivor of the Bergen-Belsen prisoner of war and concentration camp Abel Herzberg also publicly advocated the release. Herzberg was a criminal law expert and took a position completely opposite to that of many Dutch Jews at that time. He called the attitude of Jewish opponents of the release full of 'hatred and retaliation' and emphasized that revenge in such a way made no sense. Moreover, Herzberg would later indicate that, after the last two of Breda were released, he also had doubts about his own position.
Aus der Fünten and Fischer both died shortly after their release.
Transport by ambulance, under police escort, after the release of the 'Twe van Breda', Ferdinand aus der Fünten and Franz Fischer (known as 'the Three of Breda') from the De Boschpoort Penitentiary (or Koepelvangen). (Photo: Johan van Gurp, BN De Stem, 27-01-1989, Breda City Archives, JVG19890127045)
Demonstration in the Binnenhof against the release of the 'Three of Breda'. (Photo: Unknown, February 29, 1972, National Archives)
Abortion
As an informateur, Van Agt was one of those who made the Den Uyl cabinet possible, although the confessionals were severely underrepresented in it with six ministers. PvdA (Labour) leader Den Uyl initially saw Van Agt as an ally against more conservative confessions, but over time Van Agt became his main opponent.
Van Agt became a target of the Dutch left because of his opposition to the legalization of abortion and his attempts to close the Bloemenhove abortion clinic in Heemstede. He believed that unborn life should be protected, because: "A fetus is not an appendix." He aroused disgust among socialists by describing an abortion in detail in Parliament and by saying such as "doctors just abort, there is no longer any moral basis".
When Van Agt announced the closure of Bloemenhove in 1976, PvdA (Labour) Minister of Health Irene Vorrink called feminist activists who arrived on site in time to stop the police. After two weeks of occupation, the judge ruled in favor of the activists: the clinic was not allowed to close.
There was also an issue in which Van Agt did work together with Vorrink: he decriminalized the use of soft drugs and thus became the father of the tolerance policy. He would even have been in favor of legalizing drugs, but that was politically unfeasible.
Dries van Agt, right, next to Labour Party (PvdA) leader Joop Den Uyl. The 2 politicians had a difficult relationship and couldn't get along, but were in coalition governments together
Menten
Another tricky issue was the Pieter Menten case. Van Agt was called to account because the art dealer suspected of war crimes had left for Switzerland after a tip about his impending arrest. A large part of the House of Representatives blamed Van Agt for having gone to a monastery in Romania for a retreat, despite the impending arrest.
PvdA (Labour) MP Kosto questioned Van Agt's competence in response to this issue and said that he could only remain seated because otherwise the Den Uyl cabinet would fall. Van Agt was deeply annoyed by this, also because Den Uyl did not defend him.
A Dutch movie about the Dutch War criminal Pieter Menten
Labour leader Joop Den Uyl with Christian Democratic CDA leader and Prime Minister Dries van Agt in 1982
The relationship between Van Agt and Labour leader Den Uyl was complex, partly due to characterological differences. While Den Uyl breathed politics and strongly emphasized the importance of politics, Van Agt actually downplayed it. The ex-Calvinist (Protestant Christian) Socialist Den Uyl and the Burgundian Catholic Van Agt also did not understand each other and had a completely different lifestyle. For example, where Van Agt valued stylish food and a good glass of wine, for Den Uyl food was a necessary evil that had to be finished as quickly as possible.
Den Uyl once said about Van Agt: "You know what drives him, but not where." Van Agt brought down the Den Uyl cabinet in March 1977, just before the finish line, over land policy, one of the points on which the PvdA (Labour Party) wanted to reform society.
At the time of the Menten issue, Van Agt had already been appointed party leader of the CDA, the name under which the confessional (Christian) parties participated in the elections as a single list for the first time. As Christian Democratic CDA leader he struck a conservative tone. He called for an ethical revival and made it clear that he did not wish to bow to the socialists. This made him popular with his supporters, but also led to more progressively oriented religious groups such as ARP (Anti Revolutionary Party) leader Aantjes having increasing difficulty with him.
Train hijacking
Two days before the elections, Moluccan youth hijacked a train near the village of De Punt in Drenthe and took a school hostage in Bovensmilde. The cabinet formed a crisis team in which the differences between Den Uyl and Van Agt surfaced again.
Den Uyl did not want to end the hijacking with violence, but at Van Agt's initiative, the crisis team decided after three weeks to use force by a three-to-two vote. Six hijackers and two hostages were killed when the train was stormed by marines. Moluccan relatives sued the State in 2015 because the marines were allegedly ordered to execute the hijackers. Van Agt has always denied this.
Battle of attrition
Despite the hijacking, the elections had gone ahead. The PvdA achieved its best result ever with 53 seats (ten seats gained). The CDA received 49, which stopped the decline of the confessional parties. A second Den Uyl cabinet seemed inevitable, but partly due to the poor relationship between Den Uyl and Van Agt, it did not happen.
The negotiations between PvdA (Labour), CDA and D66 turned into a war of attrition lasting more than five months. They ultimately failed because the PvdA (Labour) put up a blockade against Van Agt's return to Justice.
Van Agt then went to talk to the Liberal Conservative VVD leader Wiegel, with whom he seemed to get along very well and with whom he agreed surprisingly quickly.
Dries van Agt with the leader of the Liberal-Conservative VVD Party Hans Wiegel at a table in restaurant Le Bistroquet in The Hague (1977)
After a formation of 208 days, to the astonishment of the Dutch left, a cabinet of the Center Right CDA and the Center Right VVD was on the platform, with Van Agt as Prime Minister and VVD leader Wiegel as Deputy Prime Minister. The cabinet's foundation was shaky. CDA and VVD only had 77 seats and six CDA members did not endorse the coalition agreement because they preferred to govern with the PvdA.
The Van Agt I cabinet had strong, although not very concrete, austerity plans for the time being. They were developed under the name Bestek '81, but in the end little came of it. Also because the CDA faction led by Ruud Lubbers made major breaches. Partly because of this, Van Agt has always continued to talk condescendingly about Lubbers.
During the Van Agt cabinet, the Netherlands fell into a deep economic crisis and the financing deficit rose to unprecedented levels. Minister of Finance Andriessen resigned in 1980 out of despair over the lack of support within the cabinet for the necessary cuts.
Chancellor of West-Germany Helmut Schmidt and Prime Minister Dries van Agt during a press conference at Airport Schiphol on 9 July 1982.
Member of the Van Agt I cabinet with Queen Juliana (of Orange) a the swearing-in at Soestdijk Palace on December 19, 1977 at Amsterdam roadway 1 in Baarn.
Fighting cabinet
After the 1981 elections, Van Agt was saddened to have to govern again with the Labour Party (PvdA) with his rival Joop Den Uyl, because the Center Right CDA and Center Right VVD together no longer had a majority to form a Rightwing government coalition. The formation was again very difficult. Van Agt annoyed his negotiating partners by arriving much late once: he was at the Boxmeer cycling round, a criterion after the Tour. Ultimately, the Van Agt II cabinet was formed, with Den Uyl as deputy prime minister and 'super minister' of Social Affairs and Employment, a typical Labour party Ministery/Department.
Dries van Agt with ministers of his Cabinet in 1982
Dries van Agt with the British Prime Minister Margareth Thatcher
He became a fighting cabinet, which fell after eight months when the leftwing (Center Left) PvdA (Labour Party) ministers resigned after a conflict over budget cuts. The CDA thought major cuts were unavoidable, but Den Uyl in particular did not want that. He wanted money for his job plans, even to the despair of his PvdA (Labour Party) colleagues.
The remaining CDA and the Social Liberal Centrist D66 ministers formed the Van Agt III cabinet, whose main task was preparing elections.
Right after the early elections of 1982 and during the formation, CDA leader Dries van Agt suddenly announced his departure from politics. He was tired of fighting, wanted to spend more time with his family and disappeared, as he said, "into the melancholy mists of autumn". He handed over the baton to Ruud Lubbers, who became Prime Minister.
Dries van Agt with Prime Minister Rutte on 18 April 2011 in the Prime Minister's office
Advocate for the Palestinian cause
After his departure from The Hague, Van Agt was still Queen's Commissioner in North Brabant and EC ambassador to Japan and the United States.
From the beginning of the 21st century, he presented himself as an advocate of the Palestinian cause. He wrote a book about it, A Cry for Justice, and led a citizens' initiative with the aim of a debate in the House of Representatives about Israel's construction of a wall in the West Bank.
Partly due to his involvement in the conflict in the Middle East, he became alienated from the CDA. After the 2017 elections, he announced that he had voted GroenLinks. At the same time, he continued to put the importance of politics in the Netherlands into perspective. As he once said during the failed formation of the second Den Uyl cabinet: we are a small country on a small planet in a big universe.
When asked how he would later be remembered, he replied with a typical, archaic sentence: "Like a chiaroscuro, which will soon fade into memory like the multi-colored deciduous forest under the melancholy mists of autumn."
Dries van Agt together with his wife Eugenie van Agt-Krekelberg in 2013
Dries van Agt at a Pro-Palestinian demonstration
After his death, Van Agt provided one last surprise when it became known that he and his wife Eugenie had died hand in hand. In a sense, this euthanasia is symbolic of his transition from conservative to progressive.
It is also indicative of their good marriage. During his time as CDA leader and prime minister, he regularly said that he sought Eugenie's advice. And she continued to watch over him even in his old age.
At the end of 2019, he said that he had regularly ridden his racing bike until that summer, but then suddenly became unsure of himself in a bend. He had told that to his wife. "Very stupid," he said, "because now of course they forbade me from ever getting on a racing bike again." But he realized she was right, and from now on he left his collection of racing bikes hanging in the shed.
Dries van Agt shortly before his death
* - I Pieter have a Hard G (Holland Dutch, West Netherlands) Dutch accent and speak Standard Dutch (which was called 'Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands', ABN [General Civilized Dutch]) in contrast with Dries van Agt and other people from the Brabant and Limburg Provinces in the South and the South East, which speak a Soft G dialect or regional Low Franconian language, which is close to the Flemish Dutch language. 'Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands', ABN (General Civilized Dutch) is talked by many Dutch people all over the Netherlands, but mostly in the Holland and Utrecht regions, but also in Gelderland, the Groningen city and the Brabant cities by import Holland region people or Brabant people whom speak 'Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands', ABN (General Civilized Dutch).
