Willem Drees Jr.

Willem "Wim" Drees Jr. (24 December 1922 – 5 September 1998) was a Dutch politician of the Democratic Socialists '70 (DS'70) party and economist.

Drees worked as a civil servant for the Ministry of Colonial Affairs in Batavia, Dutch East Indies from 1945 until 1947 and as a financial analyst at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 1947 until 1950. Drees worked as Deputy Director of the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis from 1 January 1950 until 1 January 1956 and as a civil servant for the Ministry of Finance as Director-General of the department for Budgetary Affairs from 1 January 1956 until 1 September 1969. In August 1969 Drees was appointed as Treasurer-General, serving from 1 September 1969 until 8 January 1971.

In December 1970 Drees was approached by Jan van Stuijvenberg, the chairman of the newly founded Democratic Socialists '70 (DS'70), to seek the leadership for the 1971 general election. Drees accepted and was unopposed in his candidacy and was elected as leader and became the lead candidate of the Democratic Socialists '70 for the election on 8 January 1971; he resigned as Treasurer-General that same day. After the election the Democratic Socialists '70 entered the House of Representatives with 8 seats. Drees became the parliamentary leader of the Democratic Socialists '70 in the House of Representatives, taking office on 11 May 1971. Following the cabinet formation of 1971, Drees was appointed as Minister of Transport and Water Management in the Biesheuvel I cabinet, taking office on 6 July 1971. The cabinet fell just one year later on 19 July 1972 after DS'70 retracted its support following their dissatisfaction with the proposed budget memorandum to further reduce the deficit. The DS'70 cabinet members resigned on 21 July 1972. For the 1972 general election Drees again served as lead candidate. The Democratic Socialists '70 suffered a small loss, retaining 6 seats in the House of Representatives. Drees returned to the House of Representatives and resumed his position as his party's parliamentary leader, taking office on 5 September 1972. For the 1977 general election Drees once more served as lead candidate. DS'70 suffered a big loss, losing 5 seats and keeping only 1 seat in the House of Representatives. Drees took responsibility for the defeat and subsequently announced he was stepping down as party leader, parliamentary leader and member of the House of Representative on 20 August 1977.

Drees semi-retired from active politics and became active in the public sector, in September 1977 Drees was nominated as a Member of the Court of Audit, serving from 4 October 1977 until 1 January 1984. After his retirement, Drees occupied numerous seats as a nonprofit director in the public sector (International Institute of Social History, Society for Statistics and Operations Research, Transnational Institute, Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, European Cultural Foundation and the International Statistical Institute).