De Meester cabinet

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Theo de Meester was Prime Minister from 1905 to 1908

The De Meester cabinet was formed in the Netherlands on August 1, 1905 by Prime Minister (Voorzitter van de Ministerraad) Theo de Meester of the Liberale Unie and replaced the Kuyper cabinet . It remained in office until February 11, 1908 and was then replaced by the Heemskerk cabinet .

Elections of June 16, 1905 and formation of the cabinet

In the elections for the Second Chamber of the States General on June 16, 1905, the Liberale Unie (LU) together with the Rooms-Catholic Bond van Kiesvereinigingen , each with 25 of the 100 seats, was the strongest force. The Anti-Revolutionaire Partij (ARP) of the previous Prime Minister Abraham Kuyper had 15 seats, while the Vrijzinning Democratic Bond (VDB) by Hendrik Lodewijk Drucker had eleven and the Bond van Vrije Liberalen (VL) had nine seats. The Christelijk-Historische Partij (CHP) received seven seats and the Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiderspartij (SDAP) from Pieter Jelles Troelstra six seats, while Friesche Christelijke-Historiscke Partij (FCHP) and the Vrij Socialisten each provided one member.

On July 14, 1905, the leader of the Liberal Unie , Hendrik Goeman Borgesius , was given the task of forming a cabinet. He tried to form a parliamentary cabinet made up of three parties, the Liberal Union, the Free Liberals and the Free Democrats. Borgesius asked them to cooperate, but only the groups of the Liberal Union and VDB agreed. In the free-liberal parliamentary group, six of the nine members present were ready to give as much support as possible. They did not want to join a government to avoid parliamentary ties. The formateur Borgesius then asked the liberal Pieter Cort van der Linden to apply for the office of Prime Minister. Borgesius himself was not available as the chances were good that the Liberals would lose his mandate as a MP in the Enkhuizen constituency if he became a minister, as this could weaken the basis for a cabinet. Cort van der Linden, who preferred an extra-parliamentary cabinet, rejected the office of prime minister. The free liberals Wilhelmus Frederik van Leeuwen (Mayor of Amsterdam), Willem Hendrik de Beaufort (former Foreign Minister) and Bernardus Reiger (Mayor of Utrecht) did the same. The union-liberal MP Gerardus Antonius van Hamel , who was questioned later, withdrew at the last minute for health reasons. Ultimately, the proposed finance minister Theo de Meester was ready to serve as temporary prime minister.

The cabinet was tolerated by the Social Democrats in the House of Commons, while other groups were more or less willing to do so. The cabinet was thus a cabinet of a parliamentary minority and, with the support of the Free Liberals, remained a minority government .

Policy and legislation of the De Meester cabinet

In 1905 the cabinet set up a constitutional committee chaired by former Foreign Minister De Beaufort. This committee proposed that the provisions on voting rights be largely removed from the constitution (the so-called blank article) in order to facilitate the extension of voting rights. However, the government bill on regulation was not dealt with. The Minister for Water Management, Trade and Industry Jakob Kraus was heavily criticized in early 1906 for a trip to Chile . Before his tenure as minister, Kraus had already signed a contract as a port construction consultant in Chile. However, this meant that he was absent for four months.

On December 21, 1906, the government narrowly escaped a crisis. Only at the last minute did War Minister Major General Henri Staal receive sufficient support for his budget. This turbulent debate went down in history as the “Night of Staal” (Night of Staal) . In particular, the proposal to abolish the so-called “permanent part”, that is, the part of the army that remains under arms in winter, met with considerable objections from the conservative parties. After two commitments by the minister, a large number of the Catholic Conservative MPs voted for the budget, which ensured the minister's political survival.

The cabinet was dealing with an employment contract law. This Wet op het arbeidscontract , which only concerned workers, was based on economic inequality between employers and workers and therefore imposed obligations on the employer. In the event of illness or an accident, the employer had to continue to pay wages, protect the employee from endangering the body, respectability and property and prevent forced business activity. Both the employer and the employee had to observe a notice period when the contract was terminated.

Government crisis and resignation of the cabinet

The First Chamber of the States General , in which the Catholic-Conservative Senators had the majority, still rejected the war budget on February 9, 1907, with the right-wing majority and the former liberal Interior Minister Samuel van Houten voting against it. The cabinet offered his resignation two days later. Before the vote, Prime Minister De Meester had stated that the abolition of the permanent part was part of government policy and that the rejection of the budget would therefore affect the entire cabinet. This led to a cabinet crisis. Try a right cabinet of the President of the First Chamber, Jan. Elias Nicolaas Schimmelpenninck van der Oye , as Informateur as well as the attempts by Cort van der Linden's failed except a mixed parliamentary cabinet of Liberals and Christian Democrats to form. After some concessions in favor of the Catholic-Conservative majority, such as the replacement of War Minister Staal, the cabinet withdrew its request for dismissal. The draft for the budget of the Ministry of War submitted by the new Minister of War Major General Willem Frederik van Rappard was rejected a year later, on December 21, 1907, by the Second Chamber with 53 votes to 38. The parliamentary groups ARP, RK, CHP ( Frederik van Bylandt , Dirk Jan de Geer and Alexander de Savornin Lohman ), SDAP, Conrad Theodor van Deventer , Theodore Matthieu Ketelaar , Piet Nolting and Willem Treub as well as Lodewijk Thomson from the Liberal Union voted against whereupon the cabinet resigned on February 11, 1908.

Cabinet members

The following persons belonged to the cabinet:

Office Official Political party Beginning of the term of office Term expires
Prime Minister Theo de Meester Liberal Unie August 15, 1905 February 11, 1908
Foreign minister Dirk Arnold Willem van Tets van Goudriaan Non-party August 15, 1905 February 11, 1908
Minister of Justice Eduard Ellis van Raalte VDB August 15, 1905 February 11, 1908
Interior minister Pieter Rink LU August 15, 1905 February 11, 1908
Finance minister Theo de Meester LU August 15, 1905 February 11, 1908
Minister of War Major General Henri Staal
Major General Willem Frederik van Rappard 		LU non-
party		 August 17, 1905
April 8, 1907		 April 8, 1907
February 11, 1908
Naval Minister Sea Captain William James Cohen Stuart
Vice Admiral Jan Wentholt 		Non-
party non- party		 August 15, 1905
August 5, 1907		 August 5, 1907
February 11, 1908
Minister for Water Management, Trade and Industry Jakob Kraus LU 17th August 1905 July 1, 1906
Minister for Water Management Jakob Kraus LU July 1, 1906 February 11, 1908
Minister for Agriculture, Trade and Industry Jacob Dirk Veegens VDB September 9, 1905 February 11, 1908
Colonial minister Dirk Fock LU August 15, 1905 February 11, 1908

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