Victorious Dutch conservatives prepared yesterday for coalition talks with slain populist Pim Fortuyn's debutant party, which stormed to second place in elections which underlined Europe's recent shift to the right.
Voters ditched the center-left government of premier Wim Kok in a landslide swing to the conservative Christian Democrats (CDA) on Wednesday in a country better known for its tolerance of euthanasia, gay marriage and prostitution than for political instability.
The labor party, in coalition for eight years with the free-market VVD and D66 liberals, suffered its worst defeat since World War II in a momentous election dominated by voter concerns over crime, immigration and public services.
Now, the Dutch are split over whether the CDA, which took 43 of parliament's 150 seats, should link up with Fortuyn's anti-immigration party, which was due to select a leader to replace their dead founder yesterday.
"In view of the peculiar result, the formation of a coalition will be difficult," the mass circulation Telegraaf newspaper said.
The fatal shooting of Fortuyn as he left a radio station near Amsterdam last week triggered an unprecedented wave of shock and anger throughout the Netherlands and was seen as prompting a significant sympathy vote for his party.
The three-month-old Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) won the second-biggest number of seats with 26. Nearly two in five Dutch want the LPF in a new government, but nearly as many are opposed, a snap opinion poll showed.
The VVD has been tipped as a third potential coalition member. A combination of the CDA, VVD and LPF would have a comfortable parliamentary majority with 92 seats.
CDA leader Jan Peter Balkenende, set to head a new government, said the victory had surpassed all expectations.
"It's been an unbelievable evening. The CDA is back," Balkenende told jubilant supporters in the Hague.
"In just a few months we have shown the vitality of Christian Democracy."
Asked if he would team up with Fortuyn's party, the former economics professor said: "Looking at the results, the voters have given a clear signal. But we'll have to discuss proposals and stability, especially with LPF."
Coalition building in the fragmented Dutch political arena is a slow process and often takes two to three months.
Formed in March by the openly gay, shaven-headed former academic, Fortuyn's fledgling party gasped at its own success in the most astonishing Dutch election in living memory.
An animal rights activist has been charged with killing Fortuyn, whose anti-immigration and anti-Islam views stoked controversy in a country with a sizeable immigrant population.
"It's a wonderful result but there is no real joy. Today we feel like orphans. We've lost our teacher," LPF spokesman Mat Herben told supporters in a chic hotel in The Hague, standing by a framed portrait of Fortuyn and his two pet spaniels.
"If Pim had lived, we would have been the biggest party."
The Labour party was also due to choose a new leader yesterday. The once mighty party, credited with social reform, job creation and steady economic growth, lost almost half its seats to tie with the VVD for third place on 23 seats.
All three ruling parties hemorrhaged votes, extending a Europe-wide trend that has seen left-leaning governments tumble in the past 12 months in Italy, Denmark, Portugal and France, as support grows for the populist far right.
The successor to Kok as party leader, Ad Melkert, announced he would step down to make way for new blood in the party.
"It's a disastrous result," said Labour's campaign manager, Jacques Monasch. "It's beyond a landslide."
The VVD's parliamentary party leader, Hans Dijkstal, indicated that he, like Melkert, would step down.
Pundits had predicted that Fortuyn's murder would prompt a big voter showing. Turnout was estimated at around 80 percent, significantly higher than four years ago.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS