Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA) who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 August 1994 until 22 July 2002.
Kok, a trade union leader by occupation, worked for the Netherlands Association of Trade Unions from 1961 until 1976, when it merged to form the Federation Netherlands Labour Movement, Kok served as its first chairman from 1976 until 1986 when he left to enter the House of Representatives as a Labour politician. After the general election of 1994, Kok became Prime Minister of the Netherlands taking office on 22 August 1994. With the following general election of 1998, Kok again as top candidate won eight seats and the coalition retained its majority and a cabinet formation resulted in a continuation of the policies with a Second Kok cabinet. On 15 December 2001 Kok announced his retirement from national politics and stood down as Leader of the Labour Party that same day. Kok remained Prime Minister of the Netherlands until the First Balkenende cabinet was installed on 22 July 2002.
After his premiership, Kok semi-retired from active politics at the age of sixty-three and became a lobbyist for the European Union and presided over several “high-level groups”, and occupied numerous seats on supervisory boards in the business and industry world and several international non-governmental organizations.
Kok was known for his abilities as a manager and negotiator. During his premiership, his cabinets were responsible for implementing several social reforms, legalizing same-sex marriage and euthanasia, stimulating the economy for more employment and privatization and further reducing the deficit. He held the distinction of leading the first purple coalitions as Prime Minister of the Netherlands. On 11 April 2003, he was granted the honorary title of Minister of State.
Personal
He was the son of Willem Kok III (29 March 1910 – 10 January 1981) a carpenter, and Neeltje de Jager (17 October 1913 – 5 May 2005). He has one younger brother born in 1945.
In 1965, after four years of dating, Kok married Margrietha “Rita” Roukema (born 3 November 1939). He adopted her two children from a previous marriage, daughter Carla (born 1959) and son André (born 1961), who is mentally and physically disabled, and together they had a third child, son Marcel (born 1966).
He died on 20 October 2018 in Amsterdam, aged 80.

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