Geert Wilders struggles towards power in the Netherlands

THE DUTCH PVVPVVPVVelection on November 22nd appeared straightforward: a win for the xenophobic right, with the anti-Muslim Party for Freedom () of Geert Wilders in the lead. In his newspaper column last week, Ronald Plasterk, a former Labour minister who has turned right, said a government of the and three less radical parties should be simple. It is not, as Mr Plasterk is discovering. The picked him as the , who sounds out the parties, after its first choice quit over a corruption scandal. It turns out that forming a government including Mr Wilders, long shunned by other parties, is far from easy.