Nora Achahbar served as State Secretary for Benefits and Customs in the Schoof cabinet between July and November 2024.
13 Facts About Nora Achahbar
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Nora Achahbar's father moved to the Netherlands as a guest worker aged 18, working as a cook in The Hague.
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Nora Achahbar graduated high school with a VWO diploma and went on to study Dutch law at Leiden University.
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Nora Achahbar was an intern for the parliamentary group of Democrats 66 and the Council for the Judiciary, and she subsequently worked as a judge ad hoc in a Haarlem court, a police detective in Leiden, and a lawyer.
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For ten years, Nora Achahbar served as a public prosecutor in The Hague, where she dealt with cases related to fraud, terrorism, violent crime, and burglary.
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Nora Achahbar joined the newly established political party New Social Contract, and she ran for the House of Representatives as its 26th candidate in the November 2023 general election.
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Nora Achahbar did not enter the House, as the party secured 20 seats.
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Nora Achahbar's portfolio includes the aftermath of the Dutch childcare benefits scandal and reforms to the benefits system.
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Nora Achahbar established an emergency committee to advise on a new centralized recovery approach that would look beyond just financial compensation.
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On 11 November 2024, when the Council of Ministers discussed the Amsterdam attacks, in which supporters of the Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv FC were targeted, Nora Achahbar reportedly considered some remarks offensive, radical, and potentially racist.
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Nora Achahbar's intended resignation triggered crisis talks to prevent a cabinet collapse between the cabinet and leaders of the four coalition parties, who finally agreed that other cabinet members of NSC would stay on.
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Nora Achahbar later denied that her departure was because of racism, and she said that some remarks that circulated were incorrect.
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Nora Achahbar did mention that public comments about integration issues as well as State Secretary Chris Jansen declaring that he continued to support a speech by Geert Wilders about wanting fewer Moroccan people in the Netherlands contributed to her dissatisfaction.