The Zijlstra cabinet was the executive branch of the Dutch Government from 22 November 1966 until 5 April 1967. The cabinet was formed by the christian-democratic Catholic People's Party (KVP) and the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) after the fall of the previous Cabinet Cals. The caretaker rump cabinet was a centrist coalition and had a minority in the House of Representatives with former Protestant Leader Jelle Zijlstra a former Minister of Finance serving as Prime Minister and dual served as Minister of Finance. Former Catholic Prime Minister Jan de Quay served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Water Management, Protestant Leader Barend Biesheuvel continued as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and the responsibility for Suriname and Netherlands Antilles Affairs from previous cabinet.
The cabinet served in the middle of the tumultuous 1960s, domestically it had to deal with the counterculture and its primary objective was to make preparations for a snap election in 1967. Following the election the cabinet continued in a demissionary capacity until it was replaced by the De Jong cabinet.[1][2][3]
Following the fall of the Cals cabinet the Labour Party (PvdA) left the coalition and the Catholic People's Party and the Anti-Revolutionary Party formed a Rump cabinet.
Such a transitional cabinet is not supposed to take important decisions, but it still resolved the issue over the introduction of commercial television, which had been a major issue in the two previous cabinets, with the omroepwet, which allowed commercial blocks on public television (between shows), despite protests by VVD and part of CHU.
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