THE DUTCH have once again lived up to their reputation as a nation of careful housekeepers. They have rewarded the one party that pledged to radically cut government spending and dispense hair shirts for the good of the economy after a cliff-hanger general election finish.
As the dust settles, now that the pro-business VVD right-wing liberals are poised to deliver only the second prime minister from its ranks, the real struggle for power has yet to begin.
The make-up of the Netherlands’s next government, whether a coalition of the centre-right or a combination of right, centre and left, is still anybody’s guess.
Neither the VVD nor any other leading parties can form a government without major compromises on ideology. Coalition negotiations are likely to be long and drawn out and extremely complicated, party insiders conceded, as their leaders trooped off to visit Queen Beatrix at the palace. They fulfilled their constitutional duty later in the day to sketch an outline of their coalition preferences.
The shifts and balances to come will be kept under wraps in the traditional spirit of wheeling and dealing because coalitions are as fundamental and sometimes as fragile as the endless kilometres of dykes here.
Dutch voters had given a major boost to the anti-Islam Freedom party of Geert Wilders, a former VVD member of parliament who cut his political teeth in their back rooms as a speechwriter, swelling its nine existing seats to 24.
Moroccan Muslim pro-integration and community groups described the huge increase in support for Wilders’s Freedom party yesterday as a “slap in the face” and questioned their acceptance in some communities.
“We respect this democratic outcome but throwing mud at a particular group does not contribute to a harmonious society,” said Driss El Boujoufi of the Moroccan Muslim organisation UMMON.
A jubilant Mr Wilders, who wants to impose a tax on the wearing of headscarves by Muslim women and had outraged progressive politicians by calling for health cuts by denying medical care to the children of illegal immigrants, insisted “1½ million people voted for us, they chose more security, less crime, less immigration and less Islam”. He was demanding a place “at the table” and was available to join in government.
Having overtaken the Christian Democrats and outgoing prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende, Mr Wilders is being prosecuted in the Netherlands for comparing Islam to Nazism and calling for a ban on the Koran. He is seen by potential coalition partners as a dangerous force likely to further polarise communities and damage the Netherlands’s reputation as a tolerant multicultural society abroad.
One of his pre-election pledges was to ensure the retirement age of 65 remains, whereas the VVD, supported by some other parties, want it raised to 67. Yesterday though, he indicated compromises were possible and, in the interests of the cabinet, he would drop that demand. His willingness to compromise prompted the leader of the PvdA Social Democrats, Job Cohen – who needed one more seat to tie with the VVD as the biggest party – to ask: “How can this man be trusted? He campaigned and got votes for wanting to keep the pensionable age at 65, he said it was non-negotiable.”
The swing to the right was described as “a political earthquake” in some sections of the Dutch media. There were those who had doubted the ability of VVD leader Mark Rutte to pull it off all along, despite polls showing many voters believed he could.
Tough talk on tackling the financial crisis with deep spending cuts and discouraging immigration won the voters over.
Unmarried Mr Rutte (43) had taken jibes with good nature, including some where opponents jeered that he was likely to bring in “Auntie Nellie” (the Dutch EU commissioner Nellie Kroes) if things got tough.
As the Dutch woke up to a changed political landscape, some observers said it was inevitable and they were following a Europe-wide shift to the political right like Britain, Germany and France.