Prime minister Dick Schoof has admonished a member of his cabinet from the far-right PVV party for supporting its illegal call for βfewer Moroccansβ in the Netherlands.
Schoof, who is at a UN General Assembly meeting in New York, told the AD that it was unacceptable for a cabinet member to express this view.
MP Geert Wilders, head of the PVV, was found guilty of group insult and has a criminal record for leading a local campaign meeting to cheer for βfewer Moroccansβ in 2014.
In a televised chat show earlier this week, junior transport minister Chris Jansen said that he privately supported the illegal call.
But Schoof said that it was completely unacceptable for him to air this private opinion in public, given his publicly-funded role. βAs a public representative, you do not have any private opinions,β he reportedly told AD. βThere have been three parliamentary briefings about this, and Iβm done with it. Chris Jansen knows this too, he wonβt do it again, and he agreed to this quickly in a telephone call. I did not give him any room to have any other opinion.β
βYou donβt say these kinds of things and Wilders has been found criminally guilty for them.β
The public dressing-down has been seen by some political observers as a further sign of tension between the βbusinessβ cabinet and the four parties in the right-wing coalition. Schoof also called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah at the UN meeting, adding that this was not agreed with the coalition.