Right-wing shift in Dutch elections (follows other winger victories in europe)

After Hungary and the UK, the Netherlands is the third significant European Union country where right-wing parties have emerged as election winners in the midst of the deepest economic crisis since the 1930s.

There are, of course, differences between the Hungarian Fidesz, the British Tories and the Dutch right-wing liberals (VVD). But what all three have in common is that they combine rigid austerity measures in the interests of finance capital with xenophobia or Islamophobia and opposition to the EU from a right-wing, nationalist standpoint.

Furthermore, in Hungary and the Netherlands, groups with openly fascistic tendencies—Jobbik in Hungary and the Party for Freedom (PVV) of the right-wing populist Geert Wilders in the Netherlands—came in third. These parties combine violent hostility to Roma and other minorities (Jobbik) and against Muslims (PVV) with social demagogy and rhetorical attacks on finance capital. Both are spin-offs of the respective winners, Fidesz and VVD, and are close to them politically.

This shift to the right needs to be explained...The impact of the economic crisis...has also hit the middle classes, who are unsettled and feel increasingly threatened. These layers no longer look to the Social Democrats for salvation. The Social Democrats, as majority government parties (Hungary, Britain) or as junior partners in a Conservative government (the Netherlands) have slashed government spending, raised taxes and fees for the middle class, obeyed every demand of finance capital, and enforced the dictates of the EU bureaucracy. For these reasons, sections of the middle class are turning to figures who present themselves as resolute, strong men...


http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/neth-j12.shtml

Most of the centre-right parties in Europe are closer to the Democrats than they are to Republicans.

It's also worth noting that these parties aren't usually winning out right, they're winning the most votes but not enough to form governments on their own. Additionally, the traditional centre-left parties like Labour in the UK have lost support because they've adopted the neo-liberal economic policies of the right.

There isn't a huge shift to the right, more that the traditional centre-left parties have abandoned their core supporters and those supporters are now reacting in kind.

The centre-right parties aren't increasing their percentage of votes dramatically, however the traditional centre-left parties are losing votes, often because they adopted right wing philosophies.