Former prime minister Dries van Agt has died aged 93, his relatives have said in an announcement made via Palestinian rights organisation The Rights Forum, of which he was honourable chairman.

Van Agt died in Nijmegen on Monday, “hand in hand with his wife Eugenie Van Agt-Krekelberg at a moment they chose,” a spokesman for The Rights Forum said. Both had been suffering from ill-health for some time.

The former CDA leader was prime minister of the Netherlands from 1977 to the end of 1982 and deputy prime minister in a cabinet led by PvdA frontman Joop den Uyl, with whom relations were strained.

Van Agt, who was famous for his archaic use of Dutch and his love for cycling, called Den Uyl “a wily fox that would swiftly get the better of me before I knew it”.

After a landslide victory for the PvdA in 1977, a second cabinet under Den Uyl seemed to be on the cards but mutual distrust scuppered negotiations and Van Agt allied himself with Hans Wiegel’s VVD.

Following three cabinets under his leadership, Van Agt unexpectedly left politics, appointing Ruud Lubbers as his successor.

Van Agt, who had always been staunchly right-wing, went on to embrace left-wing causes in later years. He dedicated himself to the Palestinan cause, said he voted GroenLinks and eventually handed in his CDA membership card.