Murdered populist Pim Fortuyn's upstart party stormed to second place in Dutch elections as the ruling center-left was routed in the latest example of Europe's dramatic shift to the right.
Voters ditched premier Wim Kok's government in a landslide swing to the conservative Christian Democrats in a country better known for its tolerance of euthanasia, gay marriage and prostitution than for political instability.
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hristian Democrat party leader Mr Jan Peter Balkenenden
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The Labor party, in coalition for eight years with the free-market VVD and D66 liberals, suffered its worst defeat since World War Two in a momentous election dominated by voter concerns over crime, immigration and public services.
The Christian Democrats (CDA) won decisively, taking 43 of parliament's 150 seats, according to results announced early today. CDA leader Jan Peter Balkenende, set to head a new coalition, said the victory had surpassed all expectations.
"It's been an unbelievable evening. The CDA is back," Mr Balkenende told jubilant supporters in the Hague. "In just a few months we have shown the vitality of Christian democracy."
The three-month-old Pim Fortuyn List (LPF), still in mourning for its charismatic founder murdered nine days before the election, came second with 26 seats on its election debut.
All three ruling parties hemorrhaged votes, extending a Europe-wide trend that has seen left-leaning governments tumble in the past 12 months in Italy, Denmark, Portugal and France, as support grows for the populist far right.
Formed in March by the openly gay, shaven-headed former academic, Fortuyn's anti-immigrant party gasped at its own success in the most astonishing Dutch election in living memory.
"It's a wonderful result but there is no real joy. Today we feel like orphans. We've lost our teacher," LPF spokesman Mat Herben told supporters in a chic hotel in The Hague, standing by a framed portrait of Mr Fortuyn and his two pet spaniels.
"If Pim had lived, we would have been the biggest party."