After four months of coalition negotiations, the Dutch government was sworn in on Thursday. As Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands led the new cabinet onto the balcony of the Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague for a formal group photo, there was a conspicuous absence from the ceremony: Geert Wilders, the flamboyantly strident anti-Islamic politician who holds the balance of power in the country. As the government begins ruling, however, there's no doubt Wilders' influence will be felt. And that has many citizens in The Netherlands worried that the era of famous Dutch tolerance is coming to a close.
This reflects a sharp cultural shift, according to Henk Overbeek, professor of international relations at the Free University in Amsterdam. "It signals that the Netherlands is moving away from its longtime traditions of openness," he says. "This populist, right-wing, anti-immigrant rhetoric has become...