Dutch Prime Minister: Coalition remains, there was never racism in my office

State Secretary in the Netherlands' Ministry of Finance Nora Achabar has resigned in protest at what she says are racist remarks by one of her colleagues in the Council of Ministers, but the coalition remains. This is what Prime Minister Dick Schoff said last night after a crisis meeting, AFP reported, quoted by BTA.

"We decided to stay together as a government," Schoff told a news conference, adding that "there was never racism." in his government.

Since July, Dick Schoff has led a coalition of four parties, the largest of which is far-right leader Geert Wilders' Freedom Party, which won the November 2023 parliamentary election with 37 of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament.

Ashabar Party "New Social Contract" is a coalition partner with 20 seats in the lower house of parliament. Her departure threatened to split the right-wing coalition if other ministers had followed her example.

According to Dutch media reports, she was irritated by a comment made by one of her colleagues in the Council of Ministers following the violence against Israeli soccer supporters last week in Amsterdam.

It is not known what this comment was and which minister made it. Earlier, during a debate in parliament, Geert Wilders, who, like other party leaders, is not a member of the government but remains an ordinary MP - blamed the violence in Amsterdam on "Muslims" and "the Moroccans".

At the end of a crisis meeting that lasted throughout Friday evening at the prime minister's official residence in The Hague, Ashabar's party ultimately decided to remain in the coalition, thus keeping the government in its majority.