De Quay cabinet


The De Quay cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 19 May 1959 until 24 July 1963. The cabinet was formed by the political parties Catholic People's Party, People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, Anti-Revolutionary Party and the Christian Historical Union after the election of 1959. The centre-right cabinet was a majority government in the House of Representatives.

Formation

Cabinet formation was again difficult due to the growing friction between Labour Party and the Catholic People's Party. Despite the fact that this was the first post-war cabinet with the right-wing VDD and without the socialist PvdA, it continued with the building up social security that was started after the war, made possible by the continually growing economy.

Term

The free Saturday was introduced, as well as laws for education, unemployment benefit and child benefit. Natural gas was discovered in Slochteren, which would later turn out to be one of the biggest gas reserves in the world and a major source of income for the Netherlands in the decades to come.
On 23 December 1960 the cabinet fell over extra public housing, but Gaius de Gaay Fortman reconciled matters and the cabinet resumed on 2 January 1961.
In August/September 1962, New Guinea was handed over to Indonesia, under supervision of the UN.
Shortly after the installation of the new government, minister of defence Ven den Bergh resigned for personal reasons. In 1962, the new minister of defence Visser also had to resign after protests against his dismissal of a critical civil servant. In 1961 minister Van Rooy of social affairs resigned after criticism of how he dealt with the new child benefit law. His post was taken over by former state secretary Veldkamp, whose now vacant former position in turn was taken over by Gijzels.
In 1963, a proposal to install commercial television was not accepted.

Cabinet Members