Dutch cabinet crisis averted after NSC ministers opt to stay

 

Dutch cabinet crisis averted after NSC ministers opt to stay

November 16, 2024

https://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/11/dutch-cabinet-crisis-averted-after-nsc-ministers-opt-to-stay/

 

A Dutch cabinet crisis was averted on Friday evening, despite the resignation of a junior minister over reportedly racist comments made this week following the football-related violence in Amsterdam.

 

Nora Achahbar stepped down earlier in the day, citing the “polarisation” within the cabinet which made it “impossible for her to fulfil her role”.

 

“When we no longer hear or understand each other, things become hostile,” she said in a statement on Friday evening. “And then we can never work together for the common good.”

 

After news of her resignation broke, the four coalition party leaders were summoned to the prime minister’s official residence for talks on averting further problems within the cabinet. Dutch media reported that other NSC ministers were also on the verge of standing down.

 

Late on Friday evening, it became clear that the other NSC ministers had agreed to stay in the coalition with far right party PVV, pro-countryside BBB and the VVD despite Achahbar’s resignation.

 

Prime minister Dick Schoof did not go into Achahbar’s motives for standing down when he addressed reporters but said “in the cabinet and parliamentary parties, there is no question of racism.”

 

The four parties, he said, had agreed to move on. But he declined to answer questions about what had been said during the cabinet meeting on Monday, which led to her decision to quit.

 

According to RTL, ministers had compared Moroccan youngsters to pus, and used the C word to describe them. They had also suggested that anti-Semitism is in the genes of Muslims, a comment said by RTL to have come from migration minister Marjolein Faber.

 

“If you look properly at everything that was said, then it is not racism,” said acting NSC leader Nicolien van Vroonhoven in the wake of Schoof’s news conference. Vroonhoven is not a member of the cabinet.

 

Ministers and the leaders of the three other coalition parties were quick to publicly blame youngsters with Moroccan roots for the attacks on Israeli football fans and others in Amsterdam after the Ajax Maccabi Tel Aviv game last week.

 

They, and Schoof, spoke of an “integration problem” and said some youngsters with Moroccan roots have “turned their backs” on Dutch values. They also called for dual nationals convicted of anti-Semitism to lose their Dutch passports.

 

Morocco

Achahbar, a lawyer and former public prosecutor, was born in Morocco.

 

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.

 

“This cabinet is not for all the Dutch,” said GroenLinks-PvdA leader Frans Timmermans. “Achahbar is completely right to say enough is enough. Racist statements are the order of the day for this cabinet.”