Dutch coalition parties in emergency talks as Cabinet threatens to collapse
Cabinet members gathered on Friday for the regular weekly Council of Ministers meeting were forced to shift their focus from policy to the possibility that the precarious relationship between the four coalition parties has eroded beyond the point of no return. The leaders of the coalition parties PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB were asked to arrive at the same location for an emergency meeting set to begin at either 6 p.m. or 7 p.m.
It was reported earlier on Friday that State Secretary Nora Achahbar had made the decision to resign from her position, with sources telling several news outlets it was because of racist and discriminatory remarks stated by other Cabinet members. These comments were allegedly said during the first Cabinet meeting convened after the violence that followed the Ajax football match against Maccabi Tel Aviv on November 7.
Anti-Israel assailants chased, harassed and assaulted fans from Maccabi Tel Aviv after the match, particularly those who were Israeli or Jewish. In the days prior, some Maccabi hooligans were accused of disturbing chants promoting the death of Palestinians, desecrating one Palestinian flag, and possibly destroying a taxicab. A total of 35 people were injured after the football match, including five who were hospitalized. About 70 people have been arrested for the violence so far, and eight were still in custody on Friday.
The comments made within the Cabinet meeting after the rioting apparently went beyond a sensitive approach to a difficult question about the rise of anti-Semitism, anti-Islam abuse, racism in general, and the hardening stances a year after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It became particularly racist, sources told NOS and ANP. Achahbar was one of several NSC Cabinet members to take issue with positions from the three other political parties.
State Secretary for Integration Jurgen Nobel was one of the Cabinet members who commented publicly. The VVD member remarked that Islamic youth “to a large extent do not subscribe to our Dutch standards and values." He walked back his comments to say that some do in fact support Dutch values. "At the same time, I will continue to point it out, that is also my task as State Secretary," he told Parool.
Prime Minister Dick Schoof was also accused of speaking in a discriminatory fashion by some activists and political opponents. Schoof made far-reaching claims that immigrants have a problem integrating in the Netherlands. He later claimed he meant only those young people who have "turned away from society," he told Parliament. "To others, I say, 'No, that is not about you, I stand with the good who suffer under the bad.'”
Schoof claimed his words, and the words of Cabinet members, had been taken out of context. He again tried to clear up the matter prior to Friday's Council of Ministers meeting. “Please note that these are young people with a migration background they have turned their back to Dutch society,” Schoof said. Integration experts have pointed to the remarks as being a micro-aggression painting certain immigrants as "one of the good ones."
Achahbar was born in Morocco, and worked at various points in her career on behalf of asylum seekers. In her role in the Cabinet, she was also responsible for the handling of thousands of claims by parents who were falsely accused of trying to defraud the government out of childcare subsidies and other benefits. Many of these parents were the victims of racial and ethnic profiling as the result of an algorithm, and were subsequently cut off from all future benefits, and forced to pay back any benefits they collected in a lump sump. It sent hundreds, if not thousands of families into debt and financial distress.
It was already reported that Achahbar was uncomfortable that PVV member Chris Jansen would serve on the Cabinet. The infrastructure state secretary was unwilling to distance himself from PVV leader Geert Wilders when asked about 2014 Wilders' campaign pledge promising "fewer Moroccans" in the Netherlands. Wilders was tried for hate speech over the incident.
Achahbar was the second Cabinet member to resign in 15 days, the first being fellow NSC member Folkert Idsinga. Although he resigned as the State Secretary for Taxation after refusing to be transparent about his investments, he quit the Cabinet as the result of harsh words from Wilders on the issue.
The divide and mistrust between the four parties has been extensive and widely reported. The four parties appeared to be the only viable chance at forming a majority after the 2023 elections for the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch Parliament. Tensions were already clear weeks after the November 22 election, driven in part by past anti-Islam, anti-immigrant, and nationalist rhetoric by Wilders.
It quickly worsened as Wilders, VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz, NSC leader Peter Omtzigt, and BBB leader Carline van der Plas continued to swipe at each other during interviews and in social media posts.
Omtzigt walked out of negotiations after emotions boiled over in February, but he ultimately returned to the bargaining table. His conditions were that none of the four party leaders would be allowed to become prime minister, and that the Cabinet would be at arm's length from the politicians in Parliament. The former led to the appointment of Dick Schoof as prime minister, but the latter never really materialized, with Wilders and Omtzigt both appearing to pull strings behind the scenes with their Cabinet ministers and state secretaries.