Dutch government survives dispute over Amsterdam violence

Junior Finance Minister Nora Achahbar's resignation triggered a crisis cabinet meeting at which four ministers from her centrist NSC party also threatened to quit.

By REUTERS NOVEMBER 16, 2024 00:50 Updated: NOVEMBER 16, 2024 02:15

Dutch police patrol after riots in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 11, 2024. (photo credit: Mizzle Media/Handout via REUTERS)

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof saved his governing coalition on Friday despite threats of an exodus by cabinet members over the right-wing government's response to violence against Israeli soccer fans last week.

Junior Finance Minister Nora Achahbar unexpectedly quit the cabinet on Friday to protest claims by some politicians that Dutch youths of Moroccan descent attacked Israeli fans in Amsterdam around the November 7 match between Dutch side Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Her resignation triggered a crisis cabinet meeting at which four ministers from her centrist NSC party also threatened to quit. If they had, the coalition would have lost its majority in parliament.

"We have reached the conclusion that we want to remain, as a cabinet for all people in the Netherlands," Schoof said at a news conference late on Friday in The Hague.

Last week's violence

Last week's violence was roundly condemned by Israeli and Dutch politicians, with Amsterdam's mayor saying "antisemitic hit-and-run squads" had attacked Israeli fans.

Dutch police officers detain a man after riots in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 11, 2024. (credit: Mizzle Media/Handout via REUTERS)

The city's police department has said Maccabi fans were chased and beaten by gangs on scooters. Police also said the Israeli fans attacked a taxi and burned a Palestinian flag.

Achahbar, a former judge and public prosecutor who was born in Morocco, felt comments by several political figureswere hurtful and possibly racist, De Volkskrant daily reported.

"Polarisation in the recent weeks has had such an effect on me that I no longer can, nor wish to fulfil my position in this cabinet," Achahbar said in a statement.

Schoof, a former civil servant who does not have a party affiliation, denied any ministers in the cabinet are racist. Details of the cabinet discussion were not disclosed.

The coalition is led by the anti-Muslim populist party PVV of Geert Wilders, which came top in a general election a year ago. The government was installed in July after months of tense negotiations.

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Wilders, who is not a cabinet member, has repeatedly said Dutch youth of Moroccan descent were the main attackers of the Israeli fans, although police have not specified the backgrounds of suspects.

Schoof said on Monday the incidents showed that some youth in the Netherlands with immigrant backgrounds did not share "Dutch core values."