Dutch to vote for new parliament

Polls open this morning in the Netherlands as the Dutch vote for a new parliament.

The election follows a deadlocked campaign between the governing Christian Democrats and the rival Labour Party, in a contest that will determine whether one of Europe’s tightest immigration regimes gets even tougher or not.

Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende, despite a reputation for blandness and weak leadership, has consistently dominated the polls and his Christian Democrats appear on track to become the largest party again.

However, with opinion polls swerving wildly in the final weeks, Balkenende is facing a strong challenge from Wouter Bos, the opposition leader who hammered the conservatives for what he calls a heartless social policy but kept his criticism on immigration policy muted.

With as many as 40% of 12 million eligible voters still undecided in the final surveys, it was impossible to forecast winners and losers. The only safe prediction appeared to be that many weeks of coalition-building will be needed after the vote is in.

The roughly 10,000 polling stations open at 7.30am local time. First predictions were expected as soon as they close at 9pm.

In four years in office, Balkenende has ushered his country, once renowned for its cannabis-selling coffee shops and legalised prostitution and euthanasia, into a period of conservative conformity and economic recovery.

Led by hardline Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, the government also ended the Netherlands’ traditional openness to foreigners. If Balkenende is returned to power, he is likely to try to push through a new law banning head-to-toe Islamic robes such as the burqa.

While agreeing with most of the government’s immigration crackdown, Bos now wants it tempered by a return to the Netherlands’ traditional acceptance of newcomers.

“The key to a successful integration policy is twofold,” Bos said in a televised debate last night. “On one side … we have to ask people to prepare to come to the Netherlands so they can adapt to our society’s core values. But we must also ask our society to do something – make people feel welcome here.”

Bos also says the first thing he would do if he becomes prime minister is grant citizenship to thousands of people whose asylum applications have been rejected and who have been living illegally for years in the Netherlands.

Balkenende refuses to do that and said his government’s immigration and integration policies had made progress in the last four years, “but there is still work to do".

Balkenende’s Christian Democrats now have 44 seats in the 150-seat lower house, compared to 42 for Labour. Junior coalition partner the free-market Liberals have 26. Among another 21 fringe parties, the Socialist Party is expected to make a huge leap from its current nine seats.

Balkenende is profiting in the polls from an economic upswing he claims responsibility for after a raft of tough economic reforms and cuts to welfare. Unemployment is among Europe’s lowest at 4%.

Balkenende also is credited with keeping an explosive situation under control after the murder two years ago by an Islamic extremist of filmmaker Theo van Gogh and avoiding widespread riots by disaffected immigrant youths such as those in France last year.

“He brings about a sense of peace,” said 26-year-old Hague resident Henk van der Togt. “Look at the last two years. It has stayed mainly quiet here, especially if you compare this to France.”