THE HAGUE — The hard-fought defeat of the extreme right in Dutch parliamentary elections last spring has led one of the most progressive countries in Europe to embrace more conservative policies on immigration and national identity, as a way to fend off challenges from the right and forge a governing coalition.

The new government, led by the current prime minister Mark Rutte, was sworn in on Thursday after a record-breaking seven months of negotiations. It includes social conservatives from two Christian parties, a large pro-business bloc and a party with socially liberal credentials. The coalition holds power by just a one-vote margin, which suggests that the political stability of the Netherlands depends on the next four years being predictable, according to political scientists, consultants and former members of Parliament.

If there is a national emergency, a financial downturn or some other unforeseeable event, it is far from clear that the coalition can hold, since little binds the parties together but a desire to have a say in governing — and to keep the extreme-right Party for Freedom, led by the anti-immigrant populist Geert Wilders, out of power.

“Every party got a few points in,” said Ronald Kroeze, a political scientist and historian at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. “But there’s no underlying vision.”