BBC: Liberals one seat ahead of Labour in Dutch election
A centre-right party has emerged narrowly on top in the Netherlands' election, with the Liberal Party (VVD) winning one seat more than Labour.
With almost 90% of votes counted, the VVD had 31 of 150 seats, and appeared to be heading for coalition talks.
Geert Wilders' anti-Islam Freedom Party won 24 seats, its best-ever finish.
Outgoing PM Jan Peter Balkenende resigned his seat after his Christian Democrats suffered a crushing defeat, trailing in fourth place with 21 seats.
Mr Balkenende also stepped down as leader of the party, which plummeted to a historic low losing 20 seats.
The AFP news agency reported Mr Balkenende as saying he took "political responsibility" for the result.Shift right
As results emerged it became clear that Dutch voters had shifted to the right in Wednesday's national elections, dominated by concerns over the rising national debt and discontent over immigration. ...
So now the Tea Party has spread to the Netherlands. Who knew! Just like in America, it is probably just a racist response to their first black prime minister. Oh ... wait ... they don't have a black prime minster? ;-)
