The Dutch cabinet was thrown into crisis on Friday afternoon after a junior minister resigned, apparently because of discriminatory comments made by other ministers at Monday’s cabinet meeting.
Nora Achahbar, an NSC minister who had been charged with sorting out the child benefit scandal compensation scheme, was reportedly shocked by the “extremely racist language” used by the other three parties in the right-wing coalition while discussing the violence in Amsterdam last week.
Ministers and the leaders of the three other coalition parties – the far right PVV, pro-countryside BBB and the VVD – have been quick to blame youngsters with Moroccan roots for the attacks on Israeli football fans and others in Amsterdam after the Ajax Maccabi Tel Aviv game.
Prime minister Dick Schoof has also spoken of an “integration problem” in the Netherlands, and has not ruled out stripping dual nationals who are convicted of anti-Semitism of their Dutch passports on terrorism grounds – as called for by the other three parties.
According to the AD, other NSC ministers are also considering standing down, including Judith Uitermark, the current home affairs minister. The four coalition party leaders have been summed to join crisis talks at the prime minister’s official residence, the Catshuis on Friday evening.
“Insiders consider the end of the cabinet could be on the cards,” RTL correspondent Fons Lambie said. “The cabinet meeting has been halted and ministers sat together with their own party members to wait and see what would happen. It all depends on whether the NSC continues to support the cabinet or not.”
Meanwhile, opposition party leaders have said they want the cabinet to publish the minutes of Monday’s meeting to find out exactly what was said. Cabinet meeting minutes are only made public after 20 years.
Achahbar, 42, was born in Morocco and has a law degree. She was a public prosecutor for several years and practiced law before that. She is the second NSC minister to quit. Earlier this month, tax minister Folkert Idsinga quit after coalition partner PVV joined calls for him to reveal more about his investments.
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