Little to Celebrate in the Dutch Elections

It says something about the state of European politics that the Dutch election results are widely seen as cause for celebration. Geert Wilders -- a far-right populist who makes Donald Trump look like a cautious centrist -- did worse than expected. But he was by no means crushed, and the anger Wilders and his ilk are channeling is still there.

In due course Prime Minister Mark Rutte will be able to form a new coalition government. (These things take time in the Netherlands.) But his center-right party has lost seats and had to tack to the populist right to avoid a worse result. "Crushed" is the only word for what happened to Rutte's Labor coalition partner: It will have nine seats in the new 150-member parliament, down from 38. Wilders's PVV party increased its tally of seats from 15 to 20.