After the fall of the Marijnen cabinet, Cals was asked to lead a new cabinet. Following a successful cabinet formation, Cals formed the Cals cabinet and became Prime Minister of the Netherlands, taking office on 14 April 1965. The cabinet fell just one year into its term after a major political crisis and following a difficult cabinet formation was not included in a new cabinet. Cals left office upon the installation of the caretakerZijlstra cabinet on 22 November 1966 and announced his retirement.
Cals semi-retired from active politics at just 52 and became active in the private and public sectors as a corporate and non-profit director, and served as a diplomat and lobbyist for several economic delegations and presided over several state commissions and councils for the government. Cals was known for his abilities as a efficient manager and his work ethics. During his premiership, his cabinet were responsible for major social reforms to social security, closing the mines in Limburg and stimulating urban development in the Randstad. Cals was granted the honorary title of Minister of State on 5 December 1966 and continued to comment on political affairs as a statesman until he was diagnosed with a terminalbrain tumor and died in December 1971 at the age of just 57. He holds the distinction of as the fourth longest-serving cabinet member since 1850 with 14 years and 353 days and his premiership is consistently considered both by scholars and the public to have been average.[4][5][6][7][8]
Jozef Maria Laurens Theo Cals was born in Roermond on 18 July 1914. After completing his secondary education in his home town, he studied for the priesthood in Rolduc. In 1935, however, he interrupted his theological training to study law at the Radboud University Nijmegen, after graduating in 1940 he practised law in that same city up until 1950, in the meantime also teaching economics at his old secondary school in Roermond.
Politics
In 1945 Cals became leader of the Catholic People's Party in the municipal council of Nijmegen until 1946. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1948. From 15 March 1950 to 2 September 1952 he was State Secretary for Education, Arts and Sciences, serving from 15 March 1950 until 2 September 1952 in the Drees-Van Schaik and Drees I cabinets. He became Minister of Education, Arts and Sciences serving from 2 September 1952 until 24 July 1963 in the cabinets Drees II and III, Beel II and De Quay, he helped pass the Mammoetwet, a law that transformed secondary education. In the debate, he spoke for 6 hours and 50 minutes, setting a record. In 1963, however, he returned to the House of Representatives. Alongside his duties there, he was a member of the board of governors of the University of Groningen, chairman of the Arts Council and a member of the Press Council.
In the aftermath of the collapse of the Marijnen cabinet, Cals became Prime Minister of the Netherlands on 14 April 1965. After two decades of economic growth, his cabinet experienced a slight recession. Plans to build sports halls, roads and houses had to be tempered. In Limburg the coal mines were closed and plans were drawn to educate and re-employ the former miners. There was also social unrest ('the sixties'), which became apparent in the Provo movement, construction worker protests, riots over the marriage of princess Beatrix in Amsterdam and the rise of new parties like Farmers' Party (BP), Pacifist Socialist Party (PSP), Reformed Political League (GPV) and the Democrats 66 (D'66). Especially the last party wanted to change the political order.
On 14 October 1966, Norbert Schmelzer, the leader of the Catholic People's Party and chair of its parliamentary group in the House of Representatives, tabled a motion that was interpreted as a motion of no confidence against the government and Prime Minister Cals. A shocking and surprised action in Dutch politics, later known as the Night of Schmelzer, it marked the first time that a motion of no confidence was tabled against a government by a member of a government party.[citation needed] The cabinet resigned the next day.
Scouting
Cals was in 1930, just after the foundation as a separate Scouting organisation, one of the first members of De Katholieke Verkenners (The Catholic Scouts). He went to the 4th World Scout Jamboree in Gödöllo, Hungary in 1933. After the liberation of the southern part of the Netherlands in 1944 he was one of the main forces in rebuilding Catholic Scouting as a separate Scouting movement in the Netherlands. During his second term as Minister of Education, Arts and Sciences, the State Secretary for Education, Arts and Sciences was his former Scout Master René Höppener.
Trivia
Between 1968 and 1970, Cals was in charge of the Dutch entry to the Expo '70 in Japan. From 1967 he was chairman of the National Advisory Committee on the amendment of the Constitution.
Cals was a hard worker but this was at the expense of his health, he died from a brain tumor in the MCH Westeinde hospital in The Hague on 30 December 1971 at the age of 57.
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