Now that I’m retiring, many thanks to all my clients over the years! I’d also like to pay tribute to one of the greatest Dutch social democrats of the previous century: Willem Drees (1886-1988). Three cheers for democracy and for Democrats everywhere!
Willem Drees was one of the most popular Prime Ministers in Dutch history. He was known as “Vadertje Drees” (Father Drees) a nickname that shows the socialist Prime Minister was a father figure not only for his own party but for the entire population of the Netherlands. His enormous popularity was largely due to the emergency law on state old-age pensions he implemented in 1947.
The Drees cabinets were broad-based, with Catholics and socialists having the most sway. Together, they built the Dutch welfare state. The best-known measure from that time is the state Old-age Pension Act (AOW) of 1956, which Drees initiated in 1947 with his emergency law for the elderly. Every elderly person over the age of 65 received a pension from the state. Pensioners at the time talked about “drawing money from Drees” as if he were paying them out of his own pocket. When Willem Drees died in 1988, he was 101 years old, so he certainly had time to enjoy his old-age pension.
Cis van Heertum 
dag cis – wat een geweldige carriere heb je opgebouwd, chapeau!
een warme groet vanuit thailand. Puck goossen
Dag Puck – nog steeds in Thailand? Ik zie nu pas je reactie (ik ben niet zo vaak meer op de site). Dat is aardig van je, hoe kijk jij terug op je loopbaan? Hartelijke groet, Cis