A Dutch election boosts both pro-EU liberals and the far right

DUTCH POLITICSEUVVDVVDDUND are absurdly complicated. The Netherlands has a proportional representation system with no minimum threshold (most countries have one at 5%), ensuring a large number of parties and a constant churn of new ones. Voters are more evenly divided than ever between them. The prime minister, Mark Rutte, a brilliant and imperturbably cheerful tactician, has nonetheless managed to stay atop the heap for ten years, through three ruling coalitions. Last year he was hit with the covid-19 pandemic and with a child-benefits scandal that forced his government to resign just two months before an election. Yet there was never much doubt that when the votes were counted, he and his centre-right Liberal () party would again come in first. Preliminary results after the ballot on March 17th showed that the had won 23%, well ahead of any other party.Second place, however, was a big surprise: 66, a left-leaning, liberal pro-European party. Its leader Sigrid Kaag, the current trade minister, is a former diplomat who presented herself as a candidate to become the Netherlands’ first female prime minister. 66 won 15%, one of the best results in its history. For his part, Mr Rutte moved towards the centre during the campaign, imitating left-wing parties’ rhetoric on social policy. And with the exception of the populist right, every party emphatically backed strong climate policies. For a country that spent last summer leading Europe’s “frugal” club of countries opposed to greater fiscal integration and nearly torpedoed the bloc’s €750bn ($900bn) covid-19 relief fund, the election may signal an important shift.