Many European countries have lodged protests with Iran over the violence used against supporters of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi in the past week. Only Italy has ordered its embassy to give humanitarian aid to wounded protesters, while most other countries have said they will not open the doors of their embassies to the protesters.

The international community is helplessly watching the developments in Iran from the sidelines. But is it even possible for the outside world to have an influence on what’s happening in Iran? The Ahmadinejad regime has been telling the Iranians that foreign forces, most notably the US and the UK, are behind the protests.

Will a stronger response from the international community be helpful or harmful to those who are calling for more democracy and transparency in Iran? And what form could such a response take?

17 percent of Dutch voters who made it to the polls on Thursday chose the Party for Freedom, the brain child of anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders, to represent them in the European parliament. Wilders, who himself is not moving to Brussels, but was at the forefront of the campaign, has made his stand on the European parliament pretty clear: he wants to abolish it. He also wants to indefinitely ban Turkey from entering into the EU, kick Bulgaria and Romania out and be tough on immigration. His “For the Netherlands” campaign was the most eurosceptic of all the Dutch parties competing.

But even Wilders had not expected his party to become bigger than Labour. “This is the day the PVV finally made its breakthrough,” he said.

Yet at the other extreme of the political spectrum, D66, the most ‘euro-loving’ of the Dutch parties – also went from one to three seats. Ruling parties Labour and the Christian democrats, however, were severely penalised by the voters.

“The Netherlands is a more polarised country since Thursday’s election,” NRC political correspondent Herman Staal writes. When it comes to the European perspective, he asks: “Does the PVV victory, on top of the Dutch ‘no’ in the 2005 referendum about the European constitution, mean that the Netherlands is now firmly in the eurosceptic camp?”

What do you think the (further) polarisation of the Dutch political landscapes means for the country both at home and in Europe?