page_title: Labour Party (Netherlands)
section_title: 1965–1989
hierarchical_section_title: Labour Party (Netherlands) / History / 1965–1989
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Joop den Uyl. Minister-president van Nederland (1973-1977)
context_page_description: The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in the Netherlands.
  The party was founded in 1946 as a merger of the Social Democratic Workers' Party, the Free-thinking Democratic League, and the Christian Democratic Union. Prime Ministers from the Labour Party have been Willem Drees, Joop den Uyl, and Wim Kok.
  From 2012 to 2017, the PvdA formed the second largest parliamental faction and was the junior partner in the Second Rutte cabinet with the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy. Since 2016, Lodewijk Asscher has been Leader of the Labour Party. The party fell to only nine seats in the House of Representatives at the 2017 general election, making it only the seventh-largest faction in the chamber–its worst showing ever. However, the PvdA rebounded with a first-place finish in the 2019 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, winning 6 of 26 seats with 19% of the vote.
  The Labour Party is a member of the European Party of European Socialists and the global Progressive Alliance. In the European Parliament, where the Labour Party has 6 seats, it is part of the parliamentary group Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.
context_section_description: In 1965 a conflict in the KVP-ARP-CHU-VVD cabinet made continuation of the government impossible. The three confessional, Christian-influenced parties turned towards the PvdA. Together they formed the Cals cabinet, with KVP leader Jo Cals as prime minister. This cabinet was also short lived and conflict ridden. The conflicts culminated in the fall of the Cals cabinet over economic policy.
  Meanwhile, a younger generation was attempting to gain control of the PvdA. A group of young PvdA members, calling themselves the New Left, changed the party. The New Left believed the party should become oriented towards the new social movements, adopting their anti-parliamentary strategies and their issues, such as women's liberation, environmental conservation and Third World development. Prominent New Left members were Jan Nagel, André van der Louw and Bram Peper. One of their early victories followed the fall of the Cals cabinet. The party Congress adopted a motion that made it impossible for the PvdA to govern with the KVP and its Protestant allies. In response to the growing power of the New Left group, a group of older, centrist party members, led by Willem Drees' son, Willem Drees, Jr. founded the New Right. They split in 1970, after it was clear that they had lost the conflict with the New Left, and founded a new moderate Social Democratic party, Democratic Socialists '70 (DS70).
  Under the New Left, the PvdA started a strategy of polarisation, striving for a cabinet based on a progressive majority in parliament. In order to form that cabinet the PvdA allied itself with the social liberal party Democrats 66 (D66) and the progressive Christian Political Party of Radicals (PPR). The alliance was called the Progressive Accord (PAK). In the 1971 and 1972 elections, these three parties promised to form a cabinet with a radical common programme after the elections. They were unable to gain a majority in either election. In 1971, they were kept out of cabinet, and the party of former PvdA members, DS70, became a partner of the First Biesheuvel cabinet.
  In the 1972 elections, neither the PvdA and its allies or the KVP and its allies were able to gain a majority. The two sides were forced to work together. Joop den Uyl, the leader of the PvdA, led the cabinet. The cabinet was an extra-parliamentary cabinet and it was composed of members of the three progressive parties and members of the KVP and the ARP. The cabinet attempted to radically reform government, society and the economy, and a wide range of progressive social reforms were enacted during its time in office, such as significant increases in welfare payments and the indexation of benefits and the minimum wage to the cost of living.
  The PvdA also faced economic decline and was riddled with personal and ideological conflicts. Especially, the relationship between Prime Minister Den Uyl and the KVP Deputy Prime Minister, Van Agt was very problematic. The conflict culminated just before the 1977 elections, the cabinet fell. The 1977 general election were won by the PvdA, but the ideological and personal conflict between Van Agt and Den Uyl prevented the formation of a new centre-left cabinet. After very long cabinet formation talks, the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), itself a new Christian democratic political formation composed of KVP, CHU and ARP, formed government with the VVD, based on a very narrow majority. The PvdA was left in opposition.
  In the 1981 general election, the incumbent CDA-VVD cabinet lost their majority. The CDA remained the largest party, but it was forced to co-operate with the PvdA and D66 (the PPR had left the alliance, after losing the 1977 elections). In the new cabinet led by Van Agt, Den Uyl returned to cabinet, now as Deputy Prime Minister. The personal and ideological conflict between Van Agt and Den Uyl culminated in the fall of the cabinet just months after it was formed. The VVD and the CDA regained their majority in the 1982 general election and retained it in the 1986 general election. The PvdA was left in opposition. During this period, the pa
caption: Joop den Uyl, party leader (1966–1986) and Prime Minister (1973–1977)
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