Election shows Dutch divided on immigration

THE HAGUE — Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s right-of-center Christian Democratic Appeal party, which has led efforts to curtail Muslim immigration in the Netherlands, won the most seats in parliamentary elections Wednesday.

But voters voiced strong discontent with his government by giving unprecedented support to extremist parties at both ends of the political spectrum.

After five years of politically motivated murders and some of Europe’s most acrimonious debate over the rapid influx of immigrants into this once-homogeneous country, election results reflected a public split over how to resolve the country’s problems and laid a political minefield for creating a coalition that can effectively govern.

As expected, no party won enough seats for a majority in the lower house of parliament. The erratic voting patterns shifted significant numbers of seats to parties with extremist views and reduced the influence of moderate parties, a result that surprised government officials and political analysts.

“It’s a new signal from the voters,” said Jan Marijnissen, leader of the Socialist Party, which won the third-highest number of seats. The party promotes an anti-globalization, anti-European platform and advocates greater public spending on the poor and elderly.

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Election shows Dutch divided on immigration
Chicago Tribune