“There is and was no racism in the cabinet“. The Dutch Prime Minister, Dick Schoofhas flatly denied the existence of racism within his coalition Government, and thus settles the political crisis in the country due to the management of the Executive as a result of the violence unleashed in the streets of Amsterdam and the alleged racist comments made by members of the Executive.
Schoof appeared before the press late this Friday night, after holding a meeting tonight with the heads of the four parties that make up the government coalition and the members of the cabinet in its first crisis since its formation last Julyeight months after the elections were held.
The leader of the Executive, the most right-wing of those who have governed the Netherlands in recent decades, thus denied the reason given by the secretary of state of the Ministry of Finance of the centrist New Social Contract party, Nora Achahbar, upon resigning this Friday.
Achahbar argued alleged racist comments made on Monday by members of the Dutch Executive during a “heated” meeting by the violence management that occurred last week between Israeli fans and Ajax fans in the capital, which led to it being later classified as anti-Semitism.
This way, fragile right-wing coalition will retain enough seats to remain in powerafter the cabinet was reeling over concerns that other NSC ministers could follow in the footsteps of the Moroccan-born Achahbar.
“With pain in my heart I have to announce today that I will not continue with this task“Achahbar wrote in a statement, in which he noted that he had entered the coalition to “restore justice, humanity and trust within the Government.”
“You come out stronger from every crisis”
Since last July, the Government of the Netherlands has been made up of the far-right Freedom Party (PVV), the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the populist Peasant-Citizen Movement (BBB) and the NSC.
“You come out stronger from every crisis”stated the prime minister, that remained silent on the content of the ministerial meeting last Monday that led to the resignation this Friday of the Secretary of State.
The government coalition has been strongly shaken in recent days by the Internal tensions over how to respond to violence in Amsterdamwhen on Wednesday and Thursday of last week there were clashes between pro-Palestinian fans and Israeli fans who had come to the city to attend an international soccer match.
Although PVV, VVD and BBB have endorsed a plan to strip the “perpetrators of anti-Israeli violence” of its Dutch citizenship, the more moderate NSC has not commented on this measure.
The four ruling parties and Prime Minister Dick Schoof they blamed the immigrantsspecifically to the Arabs and Muslimsof attacking the fans of the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv after a Europa League match against the Dutch team Ajax on November 7th.
During that day of chaos, Maccabi fans tore down Palestinian flags in the city center of Amsterdam, vandalized a taxi and chanted anti-Arab slogans, such as ‘death to the Arabs’ either ‘There are no more schools in Gaza because there are no children left,’ according to numerous videos circulating on social networks.
The wave of anti-Semitic violence in the streets has unleashed a political crisis in the country that has shaken the Government after the Achahbar’s resignation and the threat of other ministers from his NSC party to resign.
Achahbar considered that several members of the Government They had crossed a line with hurtful and possibly racist comments about the attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam and the riots in the days after the match, Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant reported.
The far-right leader of the PVV Geert Wilderswho won the elections last November, but is not part of the Government, harshly criticized the cabinet on social networks and demanded tougher measures against alleged anti-Semitism, with attacks on the Prime Minister and the head of Justice for what he considered an lukewarm response.
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