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According to SP leader Emile Roemer, there is a good chance that the SP will prove necessary to the formation of a new governing coalition. “The first opportunity goes of course to those who made the biggest gains, the two right wing parties the VVD and the PVV. But in my view the formation of a right-wing coalition is going to present difficulties, given the result."

'A spring cleaning!' this will be the slogan for the SP campaign for the upcoming national election. "Dust off the old politics and clean it with a sponge," were the words of Emile Roemer, the brand new party leader of the SP, in his speech to the party's national congress in Amsterdam. "My advice for voters who are still in doubt is this: vote for a thorough spring cleaning. A single vote for the SP will count four times. It will strengthen the SP, keep the Labour Party on the left, send home Prime Minister Balkenende and keep the right-wing liberals out of government."

Following its increase from nine to twenty-five parliamentary seats in last November’s election, the SP has marked another enormous electoral victory in today’s polls for the Netherlands’ regional governmental assemblies, the “Provinciale Staten”.

On the basis of exploratory meetings between the 'informateur' – a neutral person appointed by the Queen to advise on the composition of a new government – and the leaders of the Christian Democrats (CDA), the Labour Party (PvdA) and the SP, it now seems unlikely that the three parties will be able to form a coalition government. Mr Rein Jan Hoekstra's conclusion after repeated talks was that the differences between, in particular, CDA and SP were too great to allow them 'to come in the short term' to an agreement enabling 'stable and fruitful cooperation'. This decision stems from the CDA's desire to take the policies of the pre-election government of Jan Peter Balkenende as its starting point, policies which it seems determined to continue. In addition, the CDA is reluctant to put itself in a position where it forms the minority of a cabinet composed of its own ministers but also those of two parties to its left, the PvdA and the SP. It is particularly unwilling to do this given the clear majority in parliament of parties favouring a change in policy.

STEVE McGIFFEN looks at the signficance of sweeping electoral gains in the Netherlands for Europe's fastest-growing left party.

Elections: An anti-neoliberal party which last year brought about the failure of the European Constitution, the SP knows how to defend clear alternative proposals in the face of a consensus of left and right.

The parliamentary elections held yesterday in the Netherlands led to a veritable political earthquake. The biggest winner was the SP, which grew from nine to twenty-five seats in Parliament's 150-strong lower house, the country's main legislative body. The two parties of the outgoing governing right-wing coalition, the Christian Democratic CDA and the free market liberals of the VVD, lost between them a total of nine seats and thus the majority needed to continue in power. There is, however, no left majority either, for while the SP gained a total of sixteen seats, the social democratic PvdA (Labour Party) dropped from forty-two to thirty-three, with the Green Left falling from eight to seven. A coalition of centre-right CDA and centre-left PvdA also lacks a majority and would not be possible without the cooperation of other parties. The party founded by the right-wing populist leader Pim Fortuyn, gunned down during the general election campaign of 2002, lost all of its MPs and will no longer be represented in the lower house.

Quarter to ten, and SP campaign leader Hans van Heijningen introduces party leader Jan Marijnissen to a crowded , noisy Melkweg as “the winner of the parliamentary elections of 2006!”. Jan appears from the back of the hall, preceded by all of the SP's newly-elected candidates in a flurry of flowers, balloons and wild applause.

“Do not think that populism can be tackled by neglecting it. Do not think that populism can be conquered without fighting it.” That should be one of the lessons learned from the spectacular rise and dramatic fall of Dutch populist Fortuynism, said SP-senator Tiny Kox in his contribution to the debate on European populism at the Norwegian Social Forum in Oslo on Friday October 20th. Kox spoke at the invitation of the Manifesto Foundation, which brings together left youth movements in Norway.