Fortuyn ghost stalks Dutch politics
Labour has been celebrating its surge in the polls
The Dutch Christian Democrat Party (CDA) has won a narrow election victory, leaving it with an uphill struggle to re-build a governing coalition.
CDA leader Jan Peter Balkenende faces a difficult choice of partner between the resurgent centre-left Labour Party - its main rival - and smaller right-wing and centrist parties.
Voters in Wednesday's election returned to the political mainstream, deserting the organisation of murdered populist Pim Fortuyn, which rocked Dutch politics after it seized second place in last year's polls.
Queen Beatrix has already begun the process of forming a new government, meeting her advisers in The Hague. However, republicans who say the queen should not be involved in the political process demonstrated outside the royal palace. The BBC's Geraldine Coughlan says the role of the Dutch monarch in politics is unique in Europe, as it is her job to appoint a mediator to form the coalition.
Another term
With almost all votes counted, the CDA has secured 44 seats, while the Labour Party almost doubled its parliamentary presence, soaring to 42 seats.
The anti-immigration Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) dropped 18 seats, to be left with just eight members in the 150-seat house.
PROVISIONAL RESULTS
Final results will be confirmed on 27 January, after all ballot papers, including overseas votes, have been counted. The results, if confirmed, would give Mr Balkenende another term as prime minister.
Labour is keen to form a centrist coalition with the Christian Democrats.
"Negotiations should start as soon as possible," its leader, Wouter Bos, told AFP news agency.
But Mr Balkenende has indicated a long period of horse-trading may be ahead, saying that there were "many risks" in going into a coalition with Labour.
Close race
Squabbling within the LPF made the former coalition unworkable and Mr Balkenende's government finally collapsed last October.
The free-market Liberal Party (VVD) - the other partner in the short-lived CDA-led coalition - were predicted to win 28 seats, four more than they currently hold.
But the CDA and VVD do not have enough seats between them to form a government and would need the support of a third party to govern without Labour.
Analysts say the return to power of the LPF would be highly risky, in view of the infighting which destroyed the previous government.
The only other possible partner is the centrist Democracy 66, which has initially said it does not want to join the coalition.
Turnout in Wednesday's election was 80.3% - slightly higher than in last May's poll.
LPF's spectacular fall in support is being blamed on several factors.
Its original support may have been boosted by a wave of sympathy after the murder of Mr Fortuyn nine days before the poll and voters are thought to have been put off by its bitter internal feuding.
But mainstream parties have adopted many of his policies.
Fortuyn ghost stalks Dutch politics
By Geraldine Coughlan
The Netherlands' anti-immigration party, the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF), came out of nowhere to gain second place in the elections last May, a week after its charismatic leader was killed. Now the party has won only a handful of seats in a re-run of the election.
Public squabbling in the LPF brought down its coalition with the Christian Democrats last October. But as LPF candidate Margot Kraneveldt points out, the party still has some influence. "People think we still believe in what Pim Fortuyn said, but they are not quite sure whether we are the right people, the right party, to get his ideas into practice," she said.
Since the rise of Pim Fortuyn, the major parties have not just toughened their stance on immigration - some seem to have adopted his ideas.
The liberal VVD party recently echoed Pim Fortuyn's sentiments that Holland was full. Somalian refugee and VVD candidate Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a former Muslim.
She caused a furore a few months ago when she, like Mr Fortuyn, said Islam was a backward religion. Now she goes everywhere with a bunch of bodyguards.
I asked her why the VVD had shifted more to the right.
"It depends on how we define right," she said. "They say we really have to change integration policy and this time they mean it. If that is right-wing, then maybe you could say they've moved to the right."
Most first-generation Muslims in the Netherlands came from Turkey and Morocco as guest-workers in the 1970s. But the second-generation Muslim youths are now Dutch citizens. A rally held on Saturday to launch their new lobby group, Changing Course, is just one of several recent initiatives to promote the integration of ethnic minorities in the Netherlands.
The Mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen - who is Labour's candidate for prime minister - spoke at the rally. He believes the outgoing centre-right coalition of Christian Democrats, Liberals and LPF are too hard on immigrants.
One of the rally organisers, Memdouh Baridi, said young Muslims felt stigmatised. "People were thinking all these thoughts and Pim Fortuyn made it OK to speak out what you feel," he said. "It is fashionable to be impolite, to be intolerant and to be actually rude to immigrants.
BBC website - Tuesday, 21 January, 2003
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