The Dutch cabinet held an emergency meeting today amid reports that the coalition could collapse over its handling of the violent incidents that broke out on the night of November 7-8 after the Europa League match between Ajax and Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv. .

Nora Ahachbar, deputy finance minister of the coalition government led by the anti-Muslim populist leader of the largest party in the Dutch government, the PVV, Geert Wilders, resigned earlier today in protest at alleged racist remarks made by government ministers about the conflicts and incidents that took place in connection with the football match, several media reported, citing sources at the cabinet meeting.

Ahahbar’s resignation prompted a crisis council meeting this afternoon in which other members of the NSC’s centrist party cabinet also threatened to quit, NOS and RTL television stations reported, citing government sources.

Ahahbar felt several members of the cabinet crossed the line with offensive and possibly racist comments about the attacks on Israeli Maccabi fans in Amsterdam and the riots in the days after the match, Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant wrote.

Wilders has repeatedly said that young Dutch men of Moroccan origin were the main perpetrators of the attacks on Israeli fans, although police have not provided details of the suspects’ backgrounds.

Neither Wilders nor Ahahbar, who was born in Morocco and was a prosecutor before joining the government in July, were available for comment as the cabinet meeting was underway late this afternoon.

Party leaders have been invited to attend the cabinet meeting, media reported. Ahahabar’s office and government representatives could not immediately be reached by Reuters.

If the NSC party leaves the coalition, its other three members will either have to go ahead as a minority coalition or call early elections.

Ahahbar’s resignation follows a turbulent week in Amsterdam, where the local police department said Maccabi fans last week attacked a taxi and burned a Palestinian flag before being chased and beaten by gangs on scooters.

Israeli and Dutch politicians denounced these attacks as anti-Semitic and made historical connections to the persecution of Jews during World War II. Pro-Palestinian activists said Maccabi fans had armed themselves with sticks and stones earlier in the day and chanted provocative anti-Arab slogans.

Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on Monday that the incidents showed that some young people in the Netherlands with an immigrant background do not share “Dutch core values”.

Prosecutor’s investigations into the violent incidents are ongoing and it is not yet clear who is responsible for the attacks.

According to Dutch police, Israeli fans also committed acts of violence and insulted Palestinians with racist slogans on the sidelines of the football match between Maccabi and Ajax.

It is not yet clear how other NSC members who sit in the cabinet will react.