Editing Jo Cals (section)

==Biography==
===Early life===
[[File:Receptie op Catshuis, Minister President Cals (rechts) gesprek met Alain Poher e, Bestanddeelnr 919-1891.jpg|thumb|left|220px|[[President of the European Parliament]] [[Alain Poher]] and Prime Minister Jo Cals during a meeting at the [[Catshuis]] on 24 May 1966.]]
[[File:President Bourguiba in het Catshuis, nummer 28 v.l.n.r. Luns, Bourguiba en Cals, Bestanddeelnr 919-3317.jpg|thumb|left|220px|Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Luns, [[President of Tunisia]] [[Habib Bourguiba]] and Prime Minister Jo Cals during a meeting at the [[Catshuis]] on 7 July 1966.]]

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 (Netherlands)|House of Representatives]] in 1948. From 15 March 1950 to 2 September 1952 he was [[State Secretary (Netherlands)|State Secretary]] for [[Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Netherlands)|Education, Arts and Sciences]], serving from 15 March 1950 until 2 September 1952 in the [[Drees-Van Schaik cabinet|Drees-Van Schaik]] and [[First Drees cabinet|Drees I]] cabinets. He became [[Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Netherlands)|Minister of Education, Arts and Sciences]] serving from 2 September 1952 until 24 July 1963 in the cabinets [[Second Drees cabinet|Drees II]] and [[Third Drees cabinet|III]], [[Second Beel cabinet|Beel II]] and [[De Quay cabinet|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 (Netherlands)|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)|Provo]] movement, construction worker protests, riots over the marriage of princess [[Beatrix]] in Amsterdam and the rise of new parties like [[Farmers' Party (Netherlands)|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<!-- politiek bestel -->.

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 [[Politics of the Netherlands|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.{{cn|date=July 2024}} 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 [[Scouting Nederland|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 [[Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Netherlands)|Minister of Education, Arts and Sciences]], the [[State Secretary (Netherlands)|State Secretary]] for [[Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Netherlands)|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.