Despite just 30 per cent of the electorate voting, supporters of the Dutch Christian Democrats ensured that the party helped to swell the ranks of the EVP in the European Parliament.
Out of 31 seats, the CDA took nine (a drop of one). Prime Minister Mr Wim Kok's PvdA Labour Party dropped two seats, returning six to the socialists grouping. Their government partners, the right-wing liberal VVD, held their six seats.
A VVD party spokesman said last night that the failure of Christian Democrats and socialist Dutch MEPs to support reforms of Euro parliamentarian salaries and expenses had backfired.
The real winner, as expected, was the Dutch GroenLinks party, increasing its representation in the Parliament from one to four seats. The party has gained huge support in recent years from young voters, environmentalists and those disillusioned with mainstream politics.
The Dutch Socialist Party (SP) was tipped to take two seats in exit polls but ended up with one. The liberal left-wing D 66 Party representation in the Parliament fell from four to two and rightwing religious minority parties took three seats.
Dutch voters had been in protest mood when they cast their votes in the elections on Thursday. Some 70 per cent - a record high - of the electorate stayed away.
The parties had launched a last-minute bid to convince voters that profiteering, expenses-fiddling politicians in the European Parliament would be found out and fraud and political favours in the European Commission tackled.
The snub the Dutch have delivered to Europe is being interpreted in the Netherlands as a signal that their foremost political Euro-sceptic, Mr Frits Bolkenstein, former leader of the VVD, is a certainty now on the shortlist for Dutch Euro commissioner posts.
According to opinion polls, few people knew what the parties were promoting. Likewise, few were convinced of the relevance of voting for one party above another.
However, observers said disillusionment with domestic politics may have influenced the poll.
Domestic crises have rocked the political spectrum in recent weeks. They began with dismay at the failure to censure ministers for wrongdoing over a parliamentary inquiry into a fatal air crash in 1992. This was followed by the announcement by Mr Kok that the government had resigned, only to be put back together in the same format 19 days later.
The sudden departure of the Minister for Agriculture and admissions that his state secretary had prior knowledge of the dioxin chicken feed scandal and that the feed was also used by Dutch poultry producers added fuel to the fire.
Putting a positive spin on the dismal Dutch Euro election results, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Johannes van Aartsen, told The Irish Times: "Unfortunately, we in the Netherlands tend to take the EU for granted because it has worked so well in the past. There isn't any real grit in our political discussions about Brussels, unlike countries, such as Ireland, where so many aspects and sectors of the economy have been dependent on EC subsidies."