Mark Rutte. Photo Reuters

By Matthew Steinglass in Amsterdam

Wednesday’s Dutch election overturned myriad assumptions, as voters turned en masse towards the two large centrist parties that have backed eurozone rescue measures and abandoned the fringe anti-European parties that had been expected to win big.

Rather than punishing Liberal prime minister Mark Rutte for signing up to bailout packages for Greece and Spain and to the European emergency fund, right-wing voters re-elected him with 27 per cent of the vote, by far the party’s largest share ever. Read more