Former Dutch PM Dries van Agt, his wife die together while holding hands

Former Dutch prime minister Minister Dries van Agt and his wife, Eugenie, died while holding hands in a rare double euthanasia. The couple, both 93, breathed their last moments hand in hand in the ex-PM's hometown.

According to reports, the couple suffered from health problems before they decided to die together. He served as the Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1977 to 1982.

The deaths were announced by The Rights Forum, a pro-Palestinian group that was set up by Van Agt set up in his later years.

It shared last week that both died “together and hand in hand”.

"In consultation with the immediate family, we announce that our founder and honorary chairman Dries van Agt passed away on Monday, February 5, in his hometown of Nijmegen," the press note read.

"He died together and hand in hand with his beloved wife Eugenie van Agt-Krekelberg, the support and support with whom he was together for more than seventy years, and whom he always continued to refer to as 'my girl'," it added.

Director Gerard Jonkman told broadcaster NOS that both were very ill but “couldn’t go without one another”. Van Agt had never fully recovered from a brain haemorrhage in 2019.

Still rare, euthanasia and assisted suicide have been legal in the Netherlands since 2002. Amongst which rare is double euthanasia, which has been rising steadily since 2020.

Euthanasia of couples was first noted in a review of all cases in 2020, when 26 people were granted euthanasia at the same time as their partners, The Guardian outlet reported.

The numbers grew to 32 the following year and 58 in 2022.

Agt was the prime minister of the Netherlands between 1977 and 1982 and the first leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal party.