Ex-Dutch PM, wife die in double euthanasia
THE HAGUE – Not even death could tear them apart.
A former Dutch prime minister and his wife have died hand-in-hand in a rare double euthanasia, according to a report in British daily The Telegraph on Sunday.
Dries van Agt and his wife, Eugenie, were both 93 and were buried together last week, the newspaper reported.
“He died hand-in-hand with his beloved wife Eugenie, the support and anchor with whom he was together for more than 70 years and whom he always continued to refer to as ‘my girl,’ ” The Telegraph said, citing reports from The Rights Forum, a human rights charity Van Agt had founded.
The couple met as students at Nijmegen.
The Rights Forum said that Van Agt and his wife were very ill, and “couldn’t live without each other.”
“A Dutchman of Catholic stock, Van Agt served as prime minister between 1977 and 1982. He was popular for his humor and for riding with Tour de France cyclists. He was branded a ‘Jesuit’ and a ‘mystic’ by political rivals,” The Telegraph said.
The former Christian Democrat adopted increasingly left-wing views later in life, opposing his party’s electoral agreement with Gert Wilders’ PVV in 2010.
Van Agt was especially vocal on the Israel-Palestine conflict, writing books on the topic and branding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a war criminal” in 2016.
“Euthanasia and assisted suicide have been legal in the Netherlands since 2002 under specific conditions. Double euthanasia is rare but has been on the rise – there were 26 cases in 2020 and 58 in 2022 out of a total of 9,000,” The Telegraph reported.
Jozef van der Heijden, a former MP from Van Agt’s party, and his wife Gonnie died in a double euthanasia in 2016.