2024-02-14 19:13:07
Dries van Agt, Dutch Prime Minister between 1977 and 1982, died at the age of 93 and with his wife in a “joint euthanasia”, following a long period of fragile health.
This was how he announced it this week to The Rights Forum, a knowledge center on Israel and Palestine, which the politician himself founded.
Although the family waited to make his death public, Van Agt and his wife died together and “hand in hand” last Monday in his hometown of Nijmegen, three days following the politician turned 93.
Both shared the same age and have already been buried, according to the institute that announced the news on behalf of the couple’s relatives.
The couple They were together for more than 70 years and Van Agt’s health had been very fragile. over the past few years, especially following suffering a brain hemorrhage in 2019.
“The lawyer Van Agt enjoyed great fame as a politician and for his commitment to the Palestinian people. During his political career he was Minister of Justice (1971-1977) and Foreign Minister (1982). As prime minister, He headed three cabinets between 1977 and 1982. From 1987 to 1995 he served as ambassador of the European community in Japan and the United States summarized The Rights Forum.
Van Agt’s career and the decision for joint euthanasia
Van Agt entered politics in the late sixties when the Catholic People’s Party (KVP) asked him to help draft the party’s new election programme.
During his time in different governments, he was responsible for the Dutch policy of tolerance towards consumption of cannabis
In 2018, at 86 years old, smoked for the first time in his life to urge the Netherlands to legalize this drug, instead of continuing to apply the current policy of tolerance.
In July 2021, he resigned his CDA membership following more than fifty years due to “anger at what he believed was the party’s ruthless policy toward the Palestinians.”
“I say goodbye to you with sadness,” he wrote then, accusing the party of ignoring the “immense suffering inflicted on the Palestinian people.”
Three years ago, the Palestinian government granted him Grand Star of the Order of Jerusalem for his efforts in search of a peaceful solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, to which he has dedicated efforts since visiting West Bank in 1999.
Van Agt presented his vision on the subject in numerous speeches, articles and two books, and criticized subsequent Dutch governments for not demanding respect for human rights in its relationship with Israel.
The head of the current acting government, Mark Rutte, He assured that Van Agt, whom he always describes as his “great-great-grandfather” as prime minister, “gave color and substance to Dutch politics.”
All previous, “in a time of polarization and partisan renewal” and he stressed that both spoke and wrote to each other “regularly” and he received from him “sincere and kind advice.”
Van Agt was the oldest former Dutch prime minister following the death of fellow Christian Democrat Piet de Jong in 2016, at the age of 101.
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