Holland: Dutch voters have condemned the country's two major political parties to work together, reports Denis Staunton
With U2's Beautiful Day blaring behind him, Dutch Labour's superstar, Mr Wouter Bos, soaked up his supporters' adulation in Amsterdam.
"It's a fantastic evening and a fantastic result. The voter has spoken, and clearly, for a stable, progressive cabinet," he said as votes were counted late on Wednesday.
Mr Bos had good reason to be pleased with his achievement in bringing Labour back into the centre of Dutch politics, almost doubling the party's number of seats in parliament to 42. But victory in Wednesday's election belonged to the outgoing prime minister, Mr Jan Peter Balkenende, whose Christian Democrats remain the biggest party with 44 seats.
Queen Beatrix will ask Mr Balkenende to attempt to form the next government, but his task will not be easy. His preferred coalition partners, the neo-liberal VVD, secured just 28 seats, leaving the two parties four seats short of a parliamentary majority.
During the campaign, Mr Balkenende ruled out inviting the right-wing Lijst Pim Fortuyn (LPF) to join a new government. Mr Balkenende's last administration collapsed after less than three months following infighting within the LPF.
Without their eccentric founder, who was murdered by an animal rights activist last year, the LPF has all but fallen apart and Wednesday's vote saw the party lose all but eight of its seats.
Most Dutch newspapers yesterday called for a grand coalition of Christian Democrats and Labour, with the financial daily Het Financieele Dagblad suggesting that the voters had left the politicians with no other option.
"The voter has named two convincing victors. He has thus condemned them to work together," the paper said.
The centre-left Volkskrant argued that voters had clearly expressed a desire for Labour to return to government after an absence of less than a year.
"Under Wouter Bos, Labour has experienced a revival that nobody thought possible a month ago. The surprise winner must not be excluded from government. That would be a great insult to the voters," the paper said.
Mr Balkenende has said that he will consider all options in trying to form a government but he made no secret of his disagreement with Labour on some of the biggest issues facing Holland.
"If we're talking about the budget, social welfare, education or health, there are big differences," he said.
Mr Bos has made clear that he will not take a cabinet post, preferring to remain Labour's parliamentary leader. But he signalled his determination to stay in the spotlight on Wednesday night when he became the first prominent Dutch politician to publicly oppose a war against Iraq.
Mr Fortuyn's nasty spirit haunted the election campaign in the form of strident rhetoric about immigrants from many leading politicians, including Mr Bos. But Labour's presence in government is likely to have a calming effect on the immigration debate.