After Fortuyn, is it back to politics as usual in Holland? Pieter at PeakTalk takes a look at local elections in Rotterdam (where the Fortuyn phenomenon began) and thinks that it might be so: “[The] short lived turn to the right originated in Rotterdam, the country’s most ethnically diverse city, where the Fortuyn insurgency started exactly four years ago. The so-called Liveable Rotterdam party managed to upstage the ruling Labour Party in the city it had virtually owned for decades. Last night Labour reclaimed the position of largest party and the fortuynists managed to come in as the second largest with some 30% of the vote. Still, a respectable result but the magic of the previous election has clearly fizzled. Its leader, Marco Pastors – one of the few measured and intelligent emerging stars on the Dutch right – has hinted at a career on the national level, a place where he may be needed badly as both the old and new right appear to be clueless and divided. For instance, Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s party, the free-market liberals have been in an electoral freefall and aren’t even appealing enough to capture some of the former floating Fortuyn voters.”

A Dutch friend, usually a shrewd analyst of what’s going on over there, tells me that Labour benefited very strongly from the support of Muslim votes. In one way, as an indication of integration within the existing political structure, that could clearly be construed as positive, but what could it mean for that structure and, specifically, the Labour Party?

Interestingly, that friend also mentioned Marco Pastors (about whom I know nothing) as someone to watch.