NETHERLANDS: In the Netherlands followers of the assassinated Mr Pim Fortuyn have chosen a new leader, as political parties prepared to negotiate a new coalition government.
List Pim Fortuyn, which emerged as the second largest party in Wednesday's election, chose Mr Mat Herben (49), the party spokesman, as leader.
Mr Jan Peter Balkenende, the Christian Democrat leader whose party won most seats in the new parliament, is to start coalition talks with List Pim Fortuyn and the Liberal VVD.
Mr Herben said yesterday his party expected to be in the new government.
"We want to create a stable government to fulfil the aims of our party on health, education and reducing crime," he said.
A former defence ministry spokesman, Mr Herben lacks Mr Fortuyn's charisma but in a party of political newcomers he will be viewed as a safe choice for leader. Analysts predicted yesterday he would be willing to compromise, pointing out that he did not mention the party's demand for a halt to immigration.
Dutch newspapers suggested that Mr Wim Kok's centre-left government had itself to blame for losing power on Wednesday. Mr Kok's Labour Party lost almost half its seats and the new leader, Mr Ad Melkert, has resigned.
The editorials said Mr Kok was so focused on balancing the state budget that he ignored citizens' concerns about deterioriating public services, rising crime and immigration.
Mr Balkenende has indicated the new government will crack down on crime and could even close the Netherlands's famous coffee shops which sell marijuana. The government is likely to oblige immigrants to integrate more fully into Dutch society and could toughen rules for asylum-seekers.
The Netherlands's European Commissioner, Mr Frits Bolkestein, predicted yesterday the new government will collapse within months. Speaking in Brussels, he said the election result guaranteed instability.
"The outcome has created a completely unpredictable, unpredicted and new situation in my country, with a lopsided parliament and therefore it's very difficult to foresee what will be the outcome of that parliament, and what the next government will look like," he said.
Mr Bolkestein, a former leader of the Liberal VVD, said Mr Fortuyn had wreaked havoc in death as well as in life and that the Dutch election showed the perils of politicians trying to get too close to the people.
"May I use this opportunity to throw a seed of doubt on the principle of getting very close to the man in the street and listening very carefully to what he wants to do and then doing it. Perhaps that principle should be a bit relativised. Perhaps there should be a certain distance between the politicians and the people who elect them," he said.
Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper warned: "A startled Europe is rubbing its eyes: whether Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Portugal, France, Belgium or now Holland - everywhere the right-wing populists are on the march. Europe is sick. It would help if this election finally made it aware of this."
