Dutch lose ground in Brussels

With four seats in the European parliament, the PVV's wish for "less Brussels" has already come true: Dutch parties will now have a much smaller role in the big political groups.

The Dutch voters said both yes and no to Europe on Thursday. The big winners were the parties with pronounced views on more or less Europe. Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom (PVV) won big on anti-Europe platform, the left-wing liberal party D66 and the Green party GroenLinks did well with a pro-European message.

Thursday's results confirm that the mood in the Netherlands has not changed since 61 percent of Dutch voters said no to the European constitution in the 2005 referendum. The same country that was one of the six founding members of the European Union more than fifty years ago is now very sceptical about the direction the European project has taken. And just like in 2005, the Netherlands will have a lot of explaining to do. Many fellow EU member states see the Netherlands as a thoroughly confused and confusing country.

The Dutch result will not affect the balance of power in the European parliament; the number of Dutch seats is simply too limited for that. With 25 of the 736 seats, the Dutch politicians who were elected on Thursday will share just three percent of the European vote between them. This is a logical result of enlargement: in 1979, after the first direct elections for the European parliament, the 25 Dutch seats still accounted for six percent in a parliament with only 410 members.

But Thursday's result will have an impact on the power that Dutch MEPs wield within their own political groups. The Christian democrat and socialist groups have been the two dominant political powers in the European parliament since it was formed. No important legislation can be approved in the parliament without an agreement between them.

And it is precisely within these two important groups - both are expected to win more than two-hundred seats this year - that the Dutch influence will be considerably smaller in the next five years due to the disappointing result for both the Christian democrats (CDA) and Labour (PvdA) on Thursday.

It is inevitable that the diminished influence of the mainstream Dutch parties will also have a negative impact on Dutch politicians being appointed to top jobs. It is doubtful that another Dutch Christian democrat will now be appointed as rapporteur on reforms in Turkey, or as president of the commission overseeing EU relations with Russia. Other presiding positions could be in danger too, all the more because experience and authority are important criteria; many of the Dutch MEPs who were elected on Thursday are newcomers.

It looks like the Netherlands will have to get used to a more modest role in the European parliament in the next five years. The result of these elections will be less Netherlands in Brussels, or the exact opposite of the "less Brussels in the Netherlands" slogan that was so often heard during the campaign.