Amsterdam, Netherlands – The Dutch prime minister’s center-right Christian Democrats won the most seats in elections Wednesday, but nearly complete returns showed a sharply splintered – and possibly deadlocked – parliament, with no alliance winning a clear mandate to govern.
The Dutch divided their votes between a government coalition that has been tough on immigration and pro-business, and socialists – led by the Labor Party – promoting a softer approach.
No combination of left- or right-wing parties will easily muster full control of parliament, state-funded broadcaster NOS predicted after more than 94 percent of the vote was counted.
The vote could result in weeks, or months, of coalition haggling with smaller parties in a position to demand a heavy price for their support. Even if a coalition emerges, the result could be an unstable government that would have difficulty completing a four-year term.
Still, an upbeat Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende pledged to “build on the foundation we laid,” but he acknowledged the result was “complicated” and said coalition negotiations would require “a level head and perseverance.”
“It’s chaos. It is extremely difficult to distill a government out of these results,” said Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm of the free-market Liberal party, Balkenende’s current partner in parliament.
“The jigsaw can still be laid in many different ways,” said Nebahat Albayrak, a top-ranking Labor candidate.
Balkenende’s Christian Democrats, cashing in on an economic revival and popular measures to crack down on immigration, easily beat their closest rival, Labor, winning 41 seats to Labor’s 32, according to the unofficial late results.
Official results are not expected until Monday.
The Christian Democrats’ narrow victory was predicted early in the day in an exit poll by the TNS Nipo market-research group and released on RTL television – based on responses from 27,000 voters.
In a first for Europe, the Party for Animals was forecast Wednesday to win at least two seats. The animal-rights party wants to curb inhumane practices in industrial farming.
