The Dutch prime minister Dick Schoof’s rightwing government averted a crisis on Friday when a junior minister resigned over alleged racist comments by cabinet colleagues, but the coalition government will remain in place.
The deputy finance minister, Nora Achahbar, handed in her resignation late on Friday as the Netherlands grapples with the political fallout of last week’s attacks on Israeli football fans.
Her departure prompted speculation that other members of NSC party – a junior partner in the four-party Dutch coalition government – would follow suit.
But late Friday, Schoof told journalists at a press conference that party leaders decided to continue to work together, averting the potential fall of his not yet five-month-old government.
“Nora Achahbar has decided not to continue as deputy minister. But as the cabinet we decided to continue together,” Schoof said after a five-hour emergency meeting with his coalition partners at his official residence in The Hague.
Achahbar, who is of Moroccan descent, decided to exit the government after a heated cabinet meeting discussing last week’s violence on the streets of Amsterdam after a football match between local club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
“The polarising interactions of the past weeks made such an impact on me that I am no longer able to effectively carry out my duties as deputy minister,” Achahbar said in her resignation letter to parliament on Friday.
The junior minister’s resignation came “unexpectedly and impacted me and other cabinet members”, Schoof said, adding “there has never been any racism in my government or in the coalition parties”.
The Dutch government officially announced Achahbar’s resignation in a statement late on Friday.
“The king, on the recommendation of the prime minister, granted this resignation in the most honourable manner,” the government statement said.
On Monday, during the cabinet meeting to discuss the attacks, “things reportedly got heated, and in Achahbar’s opinion racist statements were made,” the NOS public broadcaster said.
“Achahbar reportedly indicated then that she, as a minister, had objections to certain language used by her colleagues,” NOS added.
Coalition party leaders gathered in The Hague for an emergency session on Friday evening to discuss the current crisis, with the NSC acting leader, Nicolien van Vroonhoven, saying beforehand “we will see” if her party wanted to continue in the government coalition.
Far-right leader Geert Wilders’s Freedom party (PVV) won the most seats in Dutch elections a year ago, but the coalition it formed would lose its majority if the NSC pulled out of the government.
The ruling coalition led by Schoof has 88 seats in parliament between the NSC, the PVV, the Liberal VVD and farmer-friendly BBB party.
The political turbulence was set in motion after Maccabi fans were chased and beaten on 7 November in attacks that Schoof said were prompted by “unadulterated antisemitism”.
Wilders said during a debate on Wednesday that the perpetrators of the violence were “all Muslims” and “for the most part Moroccans”.
He called for the attackers to be prosecuted “for terrorism”.
Dutch authorities however also reported that Maccabi fans set fire to a Palestinian flag before the match, chanted anti-Arab slurs and vandalised a taxi.
Police launched a massive investigation into the incident, which the Dutch justice minister, David van Weel, said was “racing ahead”, although much still remained unclear about the night’s events.
The violence struck amid heightened tensions and polarisation in Europe after a rise in antisemitic, anti-Israeli 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 antisemitism.