The cabinet is in crisis after State Secretary Nora Achahbar of Benefits and Customs resigned from the cabinet following statements made by cabinet members about people with an immigrant background. (Photo by Sem van der Wal / ANP)
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof’s far-right government faced a crisis Friday when a junior minister reportedly threatened to resign, alleging “racist” comments by cabinet colleagues after last week’s attacks involving Israeli football fans.
Deputy Finance Minister Nora Achahbar, who is of Moroccan descent, was expected to hand in her resignation later Friday, which may prompt other cabinet ministers of her anti-corruption NSC party to follow suit, Dutch media said.
Far-right leader Geert Wilders has blamed last week’s violence in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam instigated by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans on “Muslims” and “Moroccans”.
Coalition party leaders went into an emergency session on Friday evening to discuss the current crisis, with NSC acting leader Nicolien van Vroonhoven saying “we will see” if the party wanted to continue in the government coalition.
“We have had to swallow quite a bit, it’s difficult,” Van Vroonhoven told reporters at the gates of Schoof’s official residence in The Hague.
Asked if Achahbar had handed in her resignation, Van Vroonhoven said “it looks like it, but we are going to look into it.”
Wilders’s Freedom Party won the most seats in Dutch elections a year ago, but the coalition it formed will lose its majority if the NSC, with its 20 seats in the 150-seat lower house, pulls out of the government.
The ruling coalition led by Schoof has 88 seats in parliament between the NSC, Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV), the Liberal VVD and farmer-friendly BBB party.
“The minister is expected to hand in her resignation later today (Friday) after unhappiness with incidents within the cabinet after the violence in Amsterdam involving the game between Ajax and Tel Aviv Maccabi,” public broadcaster NOS said.
“Last Monday, during the cabinet meeting, things reportedly got heated, and in Achahbar’s opinion racist statements were made,” it said.
“Achahbar reportedly indicated then that she, as a minister, had objections to certain language used by her colleagues,” NOS added.
Achahbar, 42, for a long time worked as a public prosecutor.
Other NSC cabinet members had not ruled out quitting, NOS said, citing unnamed sources.
The Netherlands is dealing with political fallout from last week, after iots broke out in the Dutch capital following racist behaviour from football hooligans.
The unrest followed Maccabi Tel Aviv’s heavy 5-0 defeat to Ajax in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday.
However, Schoof said was prompted by “unadulterated anti-Semitism”.
Dutch authorities reported that Maccabi fans set fire to a Palestinian flag before the match, chanted anti-Arab slurs and vandalised a taxi.
Police have launched a massive probe into the incident which Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel said was “racing ahead”, although much still remained unclear about the night’s events.
Anti-Islam figure Wilders said during a debate on Wednesday that the perpetrators of the violence against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were “all Muslims” and “for the most part Moroccans”.
He called for the attackers to be prosecuted “for terrorism”.
The violence struck amid heightened tensions and polarisation in Europe following a rise in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic attacks since the start of the war in Gaza.
But the Dutch government late Thursday said it needed “more time” to flesh out a strategy to fight anti-Semitism.
