Caretaker justice minister Dilan Yesilgöz has apologised for saying that “thousands” of relatives of recognized refugees came to the Netherlands and then brought in their relatives as well.

Yesilgöz’s claim played a major part in the collapse of Mark Rutte’s fourth administration after ministers failed to reach an agreement on curbing the number of relatives of relatives coming to the Netherlands.

The next day, Yesilgöz appeared on a talkshow where she talked about “wave upon wave” of people joining their relatives and the importance of “getting a grip” on migration.

Then, in an interview with the Volkskrant shortly before the elections, she claimed that “thousands of people” flocked to join their relatives, when in reality that number did not exceed 20 or 30, a figure that was known to immigration service IND at the time.

“It was wrong, incorrect, that I mentioned wave upon wave of asylum seekers joining their relatives and that I quoted a number of thousands,” Yesilgöz told MPs during a much-delayed debate on the subject on Thursday.

Yesigöz claimed she had “misformulated” and had looked at the total number of people who had joined relatives who had found asylum in the Netherlands.

The minister said she had not told a deliberate falsehood, which members of the opposition have accused her of. “That bothers me greatly and I’m very hurt by it”, she said.

But GroenLinks-PvdA MP Kati Piri maintained the minister had “spread lies about the abuse of asylum procedures”, while Christine Teunissen of the Partij voor de Dieren said what Yesilgöz had done was “ugly and fact-free politics”.

CDA leader Henri Bontenbal said Yesilgöz’s gaffe showed that “truth is often the first casualty in politics” and warned that the Netherlands is heading towards a culture in which “the truth is subservient to the political message”.

Piri and Volt MP Marieke Koekkoek tabled a motion of censure against the minister while SP and DENK MPs  moved for a motion of no-confidence. Both will be voted on next Tuesday, but neither is expected to gain a majority.