The Netherlands in the 1950’s

To bring the country back to normal:Queen Wilhelmina asked Willem Drees and

Willem Schermerhorn to form an emergency cabinet.

Drees was popular: a socialist that wanted to help the needy.

People called him “the angel of mercy”

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestand:Willem_Drees.jpg

Drees is Deputy Prime-Minister And Minister of social affairs.

1948: Drees becomes Prime-MinisterLeader of the PvdA partyLed Socialist/Catholic coalition government

until 1958.

The Netherlands were split up in 4 groups:CatholicsProtestantsSocialistsNeutral/ Liberal/the rest

Also called: compartmentalisationSegregation

No contact with other pillarsYour own pillar was familiar E.g. Catholic:Went to a Catholic schoolWent to a Catholic doctorWent to a Catholic butcherWent to a Catholic churchWent to a Catholic neighbourhood to liveWent to a Catholic factory to workRead a Catholic newspaperListened to the Catholic radio channel.

So it was hard to cooperate in the government

Catholics and socialists had to work togetherDrees was against pillarisation in politics and

social care.He wanted everybody to have the same

chances of good healthcare, education and support.

He wanted to stop pillarisation.

After WW II The Netherlands have to be rebuild.

People needed to cooperate.Drees asked people to accept low wagesLow wages lead to low pricesGood for export/trade

Government controlled prices and wages. Temporarily !!

Drees wanted social reformsCopied the British systemThe Netherlands became a welfare state. Unemployment benefit was paid by the state,

not by own pillar unions.The government took care of the people. Education would become state controlled

either. = Less influence of the own pillar

Drees introduces emergency legislation that provided a temporary basic state pension for elderly people.

Became permanent in 1956:AOW: Old Age Pensions Act. Everybody over 65 had a state pension.Drees was popular, but resigned 2 years later

over a dispute about taxes. Never left politics, until he died.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Willem_Drees_Monument_Eric_Claus.JPG

The end