Finance minister Eelco Heinen has angrily denied claims that racist comments were made during last week’s cabinet meeting, which prompted the resignation of junior minister Nora Achahbar.

Heinen said “lies” were circulating about the language used in the meeting, where ministers discussed the previous week’s violence in Amsterdam surrounding the football match between Ajax and Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv.

“I have read a lot of words in the media that I think are absolutely appalling, but that I don’t recognise,” he said. “It affects me personally when things are foisted on me that aren’t true.”

Achahbar resigned as junior finance minister on Monday after deciding she could no longer serve in a cabinet where “polarising” language had become the norm. Sources said she had objected to ministers using racist terms such as claiming that Dutch Moroccans had “anti-Semitism in their DNA”.

Prime minister Dick Schoof has come under pressure from opposition parties to publish the minutes of this week’s meeting to clarify what was said and by whom. “I won’t comment on what is said in the ministerial council,” he said. “That has to remain confidential.”

‘Pus from a boil’

Heinen was asked about one comment attributed to him in which he likened anti-Semitism to “a pus that has to be squeezed from a boil”. He did not deny making the remark, but said it had been taken out of context.

“The underlying discussion here is about anti-Semitism,” he said. “I said that it’s something that exists across society and you shouldn’t brand one section of the population with it, because we see it on the extreme right and the extreme left.”

Both junior finance ministers from the centre-right NSC party have resigned in the space of two weeks, a situation Heinen called “very unfortunate”.

Tax affairs minister Folkert Idsinga stepped down after complaining that Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-Islam PVV party, had “held a knife to his throat” by demanding he publish details of his private investments.

Omtzigt stays home

The leader of NSC, Pieter Omtzigt, had been expected to return to work after stepping back two months ago for health reasons, but on Tuesday a party spokesman said he would not be in The Hague for the start of the parliamentary week.

Omtzigt handed over control of day-to-day affairs to Nicolien van Vroonhoven, but has kept in touch with his colleagues behind the scenes. It is not clear what role he will play in parliament or whether he will speak at a party conference being held this weekend.

Relations between NSC and its coalition partners are reported to be strained following the departure of Idsinga and Achahbar. NSC’s other ministers agreed to stay in the cabinet after the four parties held crisis talks on Friday, while Van Vroonhoven supported Schoof’s assertion that there was “no question of racism” within the team.