Conservative liberal Mark Rutte narrowly won the Dutch general elections on Wednesday (9 June). But the big shock of the night is that 1.5 million people - almost one in five - voted for the islamophobe Geert Wilders.
With 97 percent of the vote counted, Mr Rutte's VVD party won 31 seats and the centre-left Labour Party (PvdA) won 30. Mr Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) came third with 24, showing up pollsters who had predicted he would win at best 18.
The ruling centre-right Christia...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.