Johannes Marten den Uijl (9 August 1919 – 24 December 1987), better known as Joop den Uyl (Dutch: [ˈjoːb dɛn ˈœyl] ), was a Dutch politician and economist who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1973 to 1977. He was a member of the Labour Party (PvdA). Den Uyl studied economics at the University of Amsterdam obtaining a Master of Economics degree and worked as a civil servant at the Ministry of Economic Affairs from February 1942 until May 1945 and as a journalist and editor for Het Parool and Vrij Nederland from May 1945 until January 1949. Den Uyl served as director of the Wiardi Beckman Foundation from January 1949 until June 1963. Den Uyl became a member of the House of Representatives shortly after the number of seats was raised from 100 to 150 seats following the election of 1956 serving from 6 November 1956 until 5 June 1963 as a frontbencher and spokesperson for economics. Den Uyl was appointed as Minister of Economic Affairs in the Cals cabinet, taking office on 14 April 1965. After Labour Leader Anne Vondeling unexpectedly announced he was stepping down, Den Uyl announced his candidacy and was selected as his successor as Leader on 13 September 1966. Under his leadership, the PvdA became a big tent party that undermined support for the small left parties, including the Radicals and the Communists.
In the election of 1967, Den Uyl served as lead candidate and became Parliamentary leader, taking office on 23 February 1967. In the election of 1972 Den Uyl again served as lead candidate and after a long cabinet formation formed the Den Uyl cabinet and became Prime Minister of the Netherlands, taking office on 11 May 1973. The cabinet collapsed on 22 March 1977 following years of tensions in the ruling coalition. During the election of 1977 Den Uyl served as lead candidate but following a difficult cabinet formation failed to create a new coalition. Den Uyl left office following the installation of the Van Agt I cabinet on 19 December 1977 but continued to serve in the House of Representatives as Parliamentary leader. For the election of 1981 Den Uyl again served as lead candidate and following a cabinet formation with his successor— the leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal, Dries van Agt— formed the Van Agt II cabinet with Den Uyl appointed as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, taking office on 11 September 1981.
The cabinet fell just seven months into its term and was replaced with the caretaker Van Agt III cabinet, with Den Uyl resigning on 29 May 1982. For the election of 1982 Den Uyl again served as lead candidate and returned to the House of Representatives as Parliamentary leader, taking office on 16 September 1982. For the election of 1986 Den Uyl once again served as lead candidate but shortly thereafter announced he was stepping down as Leader on 21 July 1986 and endorsed former trade union leader Wim Kok as his successor though continued to serve in the House of Representatives as a backbencher. In October 1987 Den Uyl was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor and died just three months later at the age of 68.
Den Uyl was known for his abilities as a skilful debater and as an idealistic and determined leader. During his premiership, his cabinet was responsible for major social reforms and dealing with several major crises such as the 1973 oil crisis, the Lockheed bribery scandals, Moluccans incidents and the fallout of the Yom Kippur War. He holds the distinction as leading the most left-wing Dutch cabinet, and his premiership is seen as divisive with both scholars and the public, from considering him to have been average to him having been one of the best Prime Ministers since World War II. Den Uyl also served as vice-president of the Socialist International, and advocated international disarmament efforts.
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Early life
Johannes Marten den Uijl was born on 9 August 1919 in the town of Hilversum. He was born in a Calvinist Reformed family. His father, Johannes den Uyl, was a shopkeeper and a basket weaver who died when Den Uyl was 10. Den Uyl attended the Christian Lyceum, the modern-day Comenius College, in Hilversum from 1931 to 1936. Following this he studied economics at the University of Amsterdam. During this period in his life he left the church. In 1942 he attained the doctorandus degree. Until 1945 he was a civil servant at the National Bureau for Prices of Chemical Products, part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. During that period he was part of the underground newspaper group that published the clandestine Het Parool. After World War II, Den Uyl worked for Het Parool, Vrij Nederland and other former resistance papers. From January 1949 to 1963 he was the head of the Wiardi Beckman Stichting, the think tank of the social democratic Labour Party. In 1953, at the invitation of the American government, Den Uyl stayed in the United States for a few months, gaining an appreciation of the American experience.
Political career
In 1953 Den Uyl was elected to the municipal council of Amsterdam and in 1956 he was elected to the House of Representatives. In 1963, he became municipal administrator for economic affairs in Amsterdam, resigning his parliamentary seat. He resigned that post in 1965 to become Minister of Economic Affairs in the Cals cabinet. As the responsible minister, he decided to close the uneconomic coal mines in Limburg, causing high local unemployment. Following the parliamentary elections of 1967, he became leader of the Labour Party in parliament.
Den Uyl's Labour Party won the 1972 election in alliance with the progressive liberal Democrats 66 and radical Christian Political Party of Radicals, but failed to achieve a majority in parliament. After lengthy negotiations, he formed Den Uyl cabinet with the Christian democratic Catholic People's Party and Anti-Revolutionary Party. This cabinet faced many problems. An early problem was the 1973 oil boycott following the Dutch support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Den Uyl said in a speech on national television that "things would never return to the way they were" and implemented fuel rationing and a ban on Sunday driving.
Between 1973 and 1977, the country's economic situation turned ugly. The government's budget deficit increased tenfold, inflation approached 10 percent, the unemployment rate doubled, and the current account went from positive to negative – the latter a critical problem in a country that rises or falls on foreign trade. Despite economic difficulties, however, the government pursued a redistributive agenda while real incomes grew from 1973 to 1977. According to a 1978 budget memorandum, the real disposable income of the "modal worker" (a statistical concept, as noted by one study, 'similar to the OECD's "average production worker" but at a somewhat lower level of earnings') went up by 10.3%, for minimum wage earners by 17.8%, and retired people by 27.3%. The military budget was also reduced and international aid was increased, while expansionary fiscal policies were implemented. The government also enacted a wide range of progressive social reforms, such as significant increases in welfare payments, the indexation of benefits and the minimum wage to contractual private sector wage developments and a system of rent rebates (1975).
Kindergartens and primary schools with high percentages of children from lower income families were provided with extra facilities (including more money and teachers) and cooperation was stimulated between schools and social and cultural institutions. In addition, 3 local compensatory education and family involvement projects that had been initiated in the early Seventies in Utrecht, Rotterdam and Amsterdam were subsidized by the Ministry of Education under the terms of a new educational development policy.
Family and later life
On 30 August 1944, Den Uyl married Liesbeth den Uyl, née Van Vessem (18 June 1924 – 30 September 1990). They had three sons and four daughters. Of those, the eldest Saskia Noorman-den Uyl became a member of parliament for the Labour Party herself serving from 1994 until 2006. Xander den Uyl became a leading figure in ABVAKABO, one of the Dutch labour unions and has served as Member of the Provincial-Council of North Holland for the Labour Party since 2011. After the elections of 1986, in which the Labour Party won 5 seats but failed to retain its position as largest party, Den Uyl was succeeded as leader of the Labour Party by Wim Kok. On 24 October 1987, the VU University Medical Center announced that Den Uyl had become terminally ill. He died exactly two months later, on Christmas Eve 1987, aged 68, of a brain tumour. Den Uyl lived in the Amsterdam neighbourhood of Buitenveldert from 1968 until his death.