News Analysis: Extreme Right Fades in Dutch Elections

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, January 24, 2003

News Analysis: Extreme Right Fades in Dutch Elections

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As the ruling Christian Democrat Alliance chanted its narrow victory over the opposition Labor Party in the Dutch elections on Wednesday, the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF), the extreme right party that rose to national prominence last May as the second largest party in parliament, had to swallowits biggest loss.

Preliminary results released soon after the election ended, thesecond election in eight months, showed the LPF retained only eight of its 26 seats in the 150-seat chamber.

The LPF's popularity had skyrocketed, and was believed to have won many "sympathy votes," in the mid-May election after its founder Pim Fortuyn was assassinated just nine days before the election.

Although incumbent Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said a long period of horse-trading may be ahead, analysts tended to exclude the LPF from a new government.

For many Dutch, eight peaceful years with the previous coalition government and stable economic growth are still fresh intheir minds. The turbulent year of 2002 was simply too hard for them to accept.

The Netherlands has a reputation for economic and political stability in the European Union, boasting consensus-based politicsand the lowest inflation rate among EU countries.

The LPF's poor performance during the last few months, highlighted by fierce internal wrangling and the resignation of LPF ministers that led to the collapse of the short-lived Christian Democrat-LPF coalition government, accounts for its decisive defeat in this election.

The bitter internal feuding dampened the expectations of many Dutch people and made the coalition unworkable, Balkenende said.

"The voter has spoken, and clearly, for a stable, progressive cabinet," Labor Party leader Wouter Bos told a cheering crowd of party faithfuls.

Given the widespread support for mainstream parties in the European political arena, it is no coincidence that extreme right parties in the Netherlands and elsewhere on the continent enjoy only transient popularity.

The Netherlands is expected to form a new coalition government in the coming weeks. It is premature to predict which parties would go into the new cabinet, but the general rejection of the LPF signals an unmistakable message that Europeans desire a quick return to political stability and economic prosperity.

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