The cabinet was a Centre-left[1] grand coalition and had a substantial majority in the House of Representatives with Labour Leader Joop den Uyl serving as Prime Minister.

The cabinet served during the tumultuous 1970s and had to deal with several major crises such as the 1973 oil crisis, the Lockheed scandal, the Moluccans incidents and the fallout of the Yom Kippur War.

Prime Minister Joop den Uyl said in a speech on national television that "things would never return to the way they were" and implemented fuel rationing and a ban on Sunday driving.

[5] Domestically the cabinet had several major conflicts, including the terrorist attacks by Moluccans seeking independence from Indonesia, the Lockheed affair (bribes accepted by the queen's husband) and the closing of the abortion clinic Bloemenhove.

On 21 December 1973, Martin van Rooijen (KVP), who until then had been working as the head of the fiscal tax department for Royal Dutch Shell, was appointed as State Secretary for Finance.

On 27 May 1975, State Secretary for Justice Jan Glastra van Loon (D'66) resigned due to a conflict with top officials at the Ministry of Defence after criticizing the department's leadership in an interview.