New leader likely to be 'dull' former academic

Weeks of painstaking negotiations will probably be needed to choose the new prime minister of the Netherlands. But the man expected to land the job is a strait-laced 45-year-old former academic who bears a striking resemblence to Harry Potter.

When the results of yesterday's election become clear Queen Beatrix will appoint someone to help construct the next government – inevitably a coalition. Her first call is likely to be to Jan Peter Balkenende, who rescued the centre-right Christian Democrats from their leadership crisis and nursed them back to political health.

A former economics professor, Mr Balkenende could hardly be mistaken for Pim Fortuyn, the murdered anti-immigration campaigner.

When he took over the leadership of the party last November, Mr Balkenende was described as "dull but 200 per cent reliable". Some of his public statements sound a little like those of the former British prime minister John Major.

Mr Balkenende never ruled out the possibility of forming a coalition with Mr Fortuyn, but would not endorse his more controversial ideas and condemned the social democrat-led government's "I'm sorry" democracy.