Amsterdam football violence exposes first cracks in Dutch government

Geert Wilders’ fury at members of the Dutch ruling coalition following football-related violence among locals, Israelis and police in Amsterdam highlights the growing tensions among the country’s four governing parties.
The Dutch far-right leader blasted Prime Minister Dick Schoof, whom he helped get the top job, for attending a European summit in Budapest last Friday, a day after violence broke out in the Dutch capital. “Why is there no extra cabinet meeting? Where is the sense of urgency?” Wilders asked.
Schoof, who canceled a trip to the COP29 climate talks and returned from Budapest early, defended his absence and said he had remained “in contact with everybody” throughout.
But the war of words underscores how last week’s violence, which sent shockwaves through the Netherlands, has rocked its relatively new and untested coalition government.
When locals, reportedly of a migrant background, attacked supporters of Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv after a Europa League match against Dutch team Ajax last Thursday night, the leaders of all four of the Netherlands’ governing parties swiftly condemned the violence.
Tensions had risen earlier in the day when some Maccabi fans tore down Palestinian flags in the Dutch capital’s city center and chanted anti-Arab slogans, Amsterdam’s acting police chief said last week. Ten Israeli fans were also arrested the day before the game.
Wilders, who leads the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) but isn’t a member of the Dutch cabinet, labeled the violence against the Israeli fans a “pogrom,” while Dilan Yesilgöz, leader of the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), denounced it as a “Jew hunt.”
Caroline van der Plas of the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB), meanwhile, called the violence a “deep disgrace,” with acting chief of the centrist New Social Contract (NSC) Nicolien van Vroonhoven deploring what she called “disgusting scenes.” All vowed to take action to punish the perpetrators, combat antisemitism and restore order in the Dutch capital.
But it didn’t take long for the first cracks to appear in the coalition’s unity, as the Netherlands’ most right-wing government ever faces its first big test since assuming power in July.
Dutch MP Ulysse Ellian, VVD’s spokesperson on antisemitism, told POLITICO the current mood in Dutch politics is “very heated,” but added that “we have to” stop bickering and focus on finding solutions.
Dutch MEP Sander Smit of the BBB party told POLITICO the coalition was responding to the violence in Amsterdam in lockstep and denied there was any friction.
“In the fight against antisemitism, all four parties are unified. I don’t see any disagreement on that,” he said.
“Of course, Mr. Wilders has his own way of expressing himself, which may be different from our BBB party, and different from the liberal VVD party, and different from the NSC,” he added.
After criticizing Schoof, Wilders hit out at Justice Minister David van Weel of the VVD, whom he accused of not doing enough to prevent the violence or punish the perpetrators.
VVD leader Yesilgöz said she had grown tired of Wilders’ “slogans and one-liners” and called on him to stop posting screeds on social media and instead focus on solutions to antisemitism. In response Wilders lashed out at her as well, saying her party had done little during the decade it held power.
“What nerve Yesilgöz has,” he remarked.
Wilders’ far-right PVV stormed to victory in elections last November, doubling its seats and becoming the Netherlands’ largest party. The PVV was joined by the liberal VVD, the newly founded centrist NSC and populist BBB to form a coalition in July after more than seven months of talks.
While the four governing parties broadly agree on tough immigration and integration policies, there are “notable differences” among them on specifics that have only sharpened after last week, said Matthijs Rooduijn, a political scientist at the University of Amsterdam.
“NSC is significantly less confrontational and radical compared to the other coalition partners,” he said, adding that the “renewed debate on integration” in the aftermath of the Amsterdam violence “has again brought to light fundamental tensions, particularly between NSC and PVV.”
Those tensions emerged during an occasionally heated debate on Wednesday in the Dutch parliament, when Wilders called for the perpetrators of the violence to be stripped of their Dutch citizenship, a plan backed by the VVD and BBB and opposed by the opposition. NSC chief van Vroonhoven was more circumspect, saying the possibility should be “investigated.”
“While NSC is less outspoken, it does at least not block the government looking into this,” said Tom Louwerse, associate professor of political science at Leiden University.
“But that may be the crucial thing: It is one thing to explore the possibility of taking away Dutch citizenship for those convicted of antisemitism, but it’s another thing to implement such a measure.”