The First Beel cabinet was the executive branch of the Dutch Government from 3 July 1946 until 7 August 1948. The cabinet was formed by the christian-democratic Catholic People's Party (KVP) and the social-democratic Labour Party (PvdA) after the election of 1946. The cabinet was a centre-left grand coalition and had a substantial majority in the House of Representatives with prominent Catholic politician Louis Beel serving as Prime Minister and dual served as Minister of the Interior continuing from the previous cabinet. Labour Leader Willem Drees continued as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Affairs from the previous cabinet. According to one study, “Beel was of the opinion that a joint KVP-PvdA program should be presented to other political groups. According to Beel, that program should be socio-economically progressive, that is to say reform-oriented in favor of broad layers of the population. The socialists should not have to fear that a conservative wing within the KVP would rule the roost.”

The deputy prime minister of the Netherlands is the official deputy of the head of government of the Netherlands. In the absence of the prime minister of the Netherlands the deputy prime minister takes over his functions, such as chairing the Cabinet of the Netherlands and the Council of Ministers of the Netherlands. Conventionally, all of the junior partners in the coalition get one deputy, and the deputies are ranked according to the size of their respective parties. The incumbent deputy prime ministers are Rob Jetten of the Democrats 66 serving as Minister for Climate and Energy, Karien van Gennip of the Christian Democratic Appeal serving as Minister of Social Affairs and Employment and Carola Schouten of the Christian Union serving as Minister for Welfare and Civic Engagement.