A face-off between the Dutch Labour Prime Minister, Mr Wim Kok, and his Liberal ally, Mr Frits Bolkestein, has sidelined opposition and allies alike as their parties struggle for the upper hand in tomorrow's general election.
Tipped by the opinion polls to achieve a combined majority of seats in the 150-member lower house, Labour and Liberals have pledged to continue their ruling alliance but each is hoping to dictate the terms.
The third party in the outgoing government, the reformist D66, is trailing badly in the polls after failing to make its mark on the current administration, while the opposition Christian Democrats have openly conceded that their chances of returning to government are remote.
In recent weeks the Labour (PvdA) party has opened a gap in the polls, helped by Mr Kok's widespread popularity and the respect he has won even outside traditional Labour circles. Labour is hovering on 43 seats, up six, and the Liberals on 36, up five.
As finance minister under the previous Christian Democrat-led government, Mr Kok effectively laid to rest the traditional image of the tax-and-spend social democrat.
Under his own government, good house-keeping has reduced the budget deficit to a commendable 1.4 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, well within the 3 per cent norm for European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
In four years of "purple" administration - so-called because of its mix of Labour red and Liberal blue - the economy has gone from strength to strength and the Dutch have created jobs at about the same pace as Germany has lost them.
The right-leaning De Telegraaf, the Netherlands's biggest circulation daily, recently named Mr Kok the most likeable, trustworthy, capable, decisive and socially aware politician.
It's a reputation unlikely to be dented by last weekend's climbdown over the appointment of the former Dutch Central banker, Mr Wim Duisenberg, as the first head of the new European Central Bank (ECB) for a shortened four-year term. Mr Duisenberg will be succeeded by France's Mr Jean Claude Trichet.
Opposition parties seized on the enforced compromise as evidence of Mr Kok's lack of political backbone, but the prime minister gained support from the Eurosceptic Mr Bolkestein.
"The cabinet has done its very best and it would not be fair to lay this unsatisfactory outcome at Kok's door," he said.
Among the electorate, frustration at the outcome of the European Union summit has turned into anger with France rather than Mr Kok. "The French give the impression they want to dominate Europe," a woman voter in the northern city of Groningen told Dutch radio.
Labour and Liberals speak with one voice on employment policy, seeking a further 500,000 new jobs over the next four-year term, law and order, and infrastructure spending.