It faltered but didn't fall: Faced with the consequences of the violence that took place in Amsterdam on Thursday, November 7, following the football match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel-Aviv, the Dutch government narrowly avoided collapse on Friday, November 15.

State Secretary for Finance Nora Achahbar, a member of the center-right New Social Contract (NSC) party, one of the four parties in the coalition led by Prime Minister Dick Schoof, had announced her resignation earlier that day. The Moroccan-born jurist, a former lawyer and then a prosecutor, said she was offended by racist remarks made by several of her colleagues during discussions on the events that shook the country's capital.

Would the other ministers in the NSC also resign and thereby trigger a crisis just four and a half months after the coalition – which also includes the liberal party VVD, the agrarian party BBB and Geert Wilders' far-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (PVV) – took office? At around 10 pm, after a lengthy discussion between the leaders of the four parties, Achahbar's resignation was registered, but the coalition survived, with the members of the New Social Contract deciding not to do the same as their colleague.

In a letter to MPs, she explained that "the polarization of [Dutch] society threatens the bond between people" and means that "others are seen as adversaries, not as fellow human beings." This was an allusion to what Wilders had to say about the events in Amsterdam, but also to the public speeches of other leaders.

On Monday, November 11, Finance Minister Eelco Heinen reportedly said that the perpetrators of the violence in Amsterdam were "the pus of society." However, according to some sources in The Hague, this liberal politician actually intended to refer to antisemitism, feeling that this problem could not be solved like "a pimple you press to expel the pus."

Jurgen Nobel, another liberal member of the government and state secretary for participation and integration, felt that the country was faced with "a very vast integration problem" among young Muslims, "for a very large portion of [whom] do not respect the norms and values to which we subscribe."

He said that the perpetrators of the violence against the Israeli supporters were, in his opinion, only young people of foreign origin. The "thugs" at work after Thursday's match were "more than likely of Moroccan origin," Dilan Yesilgöz, the leader of the liberal party, claimed as well. "Shitty Moroccans" and "halal eaters" were some of the terms used by ministers, according to the Dutch press.

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