Pim Fortuyn
Encyclopedia
Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn (ˈpɪm fɔrˈtœyn; February 19, 1948 – May 6, 2002) was a Dutch
politician, civil servant, sociologist, author and professor who formed his own party, Pim Fortuyn List (Lijst Pim Fortuyn or LPF).
Fortuyn provoked controversy with his stated views about immigrants and Islam
. He called Islam "a backward culture", and said that if it were legally possible he would close the borders for Muslim immigrants. He was labelled a far-right
populist
by his opponents and in the media, but he fiercely rejected this label and explicitly distanced himself from "far-right" politicians such as the Belgian Filip Dewinter
, the Austrian Jörg Haider
, or Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Pen
whenever compared to them. While Fortuyn compared his own politics to centre-right politicians such as Silvio Berlusconi
of Italy, he also admired former Dutch Prime Minister
Joop den Uyl
, a socialist. Fortuyn however repeatedly described himself and LPF's ideology as pragmatism
and not populism
. Fortuyn was openly homosexual
.
Fortuyn was assassinated
during the 2002 Dutch national election campaign
by Volkert van der Graaf
. In court at his trial, van der Graaf said he murdered Fortuyn to stop him from exploiting Muslims as "scapegoats" and targeting "the weak members of society" in seeking political power.
, as the third child to a Catholic family. In 1967 he began to study sociology
at the University of Amsterdam but transferred after a few months to the Vrije Universiteit
in Amsterdam
. In 1971 he ended his study with the Academic degree
Doctorandus
. In 1981 he received a doctorate
in sociology
at the University of Groningen
as a Doctor of Philosophy
.
and as an associate professor at the University of Groningen
, where he taught Marxist sociology
. He was a confessed Marxist at the time. Later, he joined the Dutch Labour Party.
In 1989 Fortuyn became director of a government
organisation administering student transport cards. In 1990 he moved to Rotterdam
. From 1991 to 1995, he was an extraordinary professor at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, appointed to the Albeda-chair in "employment conditions in public service".
When his contract ended, he made a career of public speaking and writing books and press columns, gradually becoming involved in politics
. Fortuyn was openly gay
, and said in a 2002 interview that he was Catholic.
. A one-time communist
and former member of the social-democratic Dutch Labour Party, Fortuyn was elected "lijsttrekker
" of the newly formed Livable Netherlands
party by a large majority on 26 November 2001, prior to the Dutch general election of 2002
.
On 9 February 2002, he was interviewed by the Volkskrant, a Dutch newspaper (see below). His statements were considered so controversial that the party dismissed him as lijsttrekker the next day. Fortuyn had said that he favoured putting an end to Muslim
immigration
, if possible. Having been rejected by Livable Netherlands, Fortuyn founded his own party LPF (Pim Fortuyn List) on 11 February 2002. Many Livable Netherlands supporters transferred their support to the new party.
As lijsttrekker for the Livable Rotterdam party, a local issues party, he achieved a major victory in the Rotterdam
district council elections in early March 2002. The new party won about 36% of the seats, making it the largest party in the council. For the first time since the Second World War, the Dutch Labour Party was out of power in Rotterdam
.
Fortuyn's victory made him the subject of hundreds of interviews
during the next three months, and he made many statements
about his political ideology. In March he released his book The Mess of Eight Purple Years (Puinhopen Van Acht Jaar Paars), which he used as his political agenda
for the upcoming general election
.
On 6 May 2002, at age 54, Fortuyn was assassinated
in Hilversum
, North Holland
, by Volkert van der Graaf
. The attack took place in a parking lot outside a radio studio where Fortuyn had just given an interview. This was nine days before the general election
, for which he was running. The attacker was pursued by Hans Smolders, Fortuyn's driver, and was arrested by the police shortly afterward, still in possession of a gun
. Months later, van der Graaf confessed in court to the Netherlands' first modern-age political assassination (excluding WW II events). He was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
The assassination
shocked many residents of the Netherlands and highlighted the cultural clashes within the country. Politicians from all parties suspended campaigning. After consultation with LPF, the government decided not to postpone the elections. As Dutch law did not permit modifying the ballots, Fortuyn became a posthumous candidate. The LPF made an unprecedented debut in the House of Representatives by winning 26 seats (17% of the 150 seats in the house). By the following year, the party had lost support, winning only eight seats. It won no seats in the 2006 elections
, and consequently the party had no seats left in the parliament
.
During the last months of his life, Fortuyn had become closer to the Catholic Church. To the surprise of many commentators and Dutch TV hosts, Fortuyn insisted on Fr. Louis Berger, a parish priest
from The Hague
, accompanying him in some of his last TV appearances. According to the New York Times, Berger had become his "friend and confessor" during the last weeks of his life.
Fortuyn was initially buried in Driehuis
in the Netherlands. He was re-interred on 20 July 2002, at San Giorgio della Richinvelda
, in the province of Pordenone
in Italy, where he had owned a house.
with Islam. I see Islam as an extraordinary threat, as a hostile religion." In the TV program, Business class, Fortuyn said that Muslims in The Netherlands did not accept Dutch society. He appeared on the program several times. It was moderated by his friend Harry Mens. Since his death, commentators have suggested Fortuyn's words were interpreted rather harshly, if not wrongly. For instance, he said that Muslims in the Netherlands needed to accept living together with the Dutch, and that if this was unacceptable for them, then they were free to leave. His concluding words in the TV program were "...I want to live together with the Muslim people, but it takes two to tango."
On 9 February 2002, additional statements made by him were carried in the Volkskrant. He said that the Netherlands, with a population of 16 million, had enough inhabitants, and the practice of allowing as many as 40,000 asylum-seekers into the country each year had to be stopped. (This figure was higher than the actual numbers, and immigrants were decreasing at the time.). He claimed that if he became part of the next government, he would pursue a restrictive immigration policy while also granting citizenship to a large group of illegal immigrants.
He said that he did not intend to "unload our Moroccan hooligans" onto the Moroccan King Hassan
. Hassan had died three years earlier. He considered Article 7 of the constitution, which asserts freedom of speech
, of more importance than Article 1, which forbids discrimination
on the basis of religion, life principles, political inclination, race, or sexual preference. Fortuyn distanced himself from Hans Janmaat
of the Centrum Democraten
, who in the 1980s wanted to remove all foreigners from the country and was repeatedly convicted for discrimination and hate speech
.
Fortuyn proposed that all people who already resided in the Netherlands would be able to stay, but he emphasized the need of the immigrants to adopt Dutch society's consensus on human rights as their own. He said "If it were legally possible, I'd say no more Muslims will get in here", claiming that the influx of Muslims would threaten freedoms in the liberal Dutch society. He thought Muslim culture had never undergone a process of modernisation and therefore still lacked acceptance of democracy and women's, gays', lesbians' and minorities' rights. He feared Muslims would try to replace the Dutch legal system with the shari'a law
.
He said he was concerned about intolerance in the Muslim community. In a televised debate in 2002, "Fortuyn baited the Muslim cleric by flaunting his homosexuality. Finally the imam
exploded, denouncing Fortuyn in strongly anti-homosexual
terms. Fortuyn calmly turned to the camera and, addressing viewers directly, told them that this is the kind of Trojan horse
of intolerance the Dutch are inviting into their society in the name of multiculturalism
."
When asked by the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant whether he hated Islam, he replied:
Fortuyn used the word achterlijk, literally meaning "backward", but commonly used as an insult in the sense of "retarded". After his use of "achterlijk" caused an uproar, Fortuyn said he had used the word with its literal meaning of "backward".
Fortuyn wrote Against the Islamization of Our Culture (1997) (in Dutch
).
, same-sex marriage
, euthanasia
, and related positions.
, then lijsttrekker
of the Dutch Labour Party, who said in Emmen on 24 April 2002:
On 5 May, the day before the assassination, Fortuyn debated with Melkert in a debate organized by the Algemeen Dagblad
newspaper about demonization
of himself. In it he said that he often had to tell journalists that the image created of him in the media was incorrect..
Columnist Jan Blokker
wrote:
Fortuyn changed the Dutch political landscape and political culture. The 2002 elections, only weeks after Fortuyn's death, were marked by large losses for the liberal
VVD
and especially the social democratic
PvdA (whose parliamentary group was halved in size); both parties replaced their leaders shortly after their losses. The election winners were the Pim Fortuyn List, and the Christian democratic
CDA
. Some commentators think that Fortuyn's perceived martyrdom created greater support for the LPF, which seems likely given its quick later decline.
The Netherlands has made its asylum policy more strict. Some have objected to what they think is a harsher political and social climate, especially towards immigrants and Muslims.
Contemporary Dutch politics is more polarized than it has been in recent years, especially on the issues for which Fortuyn was best known. People debate the success of their multicultural society
, and whether they need to better assimilate newcomers. The government's decision to expel numerous asylum seekers whose applications had failed was controversial. Fortuyn had advocated an amnesty for asylum seekers' already residing in the Netherlands.
The coalition
cabinet of CDA
, LPF and VVD
fell within three months, due to infighting within the LPF. In the following elections, the LPF was left with only 8 seats in parliament (out of 150) and was not included in the new government. Political commentators speculated that discontented voters might vote for a non-traditional party, if a viable alternative was at hand. In recent times the right-wing Party for Freedom
, which has a strong stance on immigration and integration, won 9 (out of 150) seats in the 2006 elections and 24 in 2010.
In 2004, in a TV show, Fortuyn was chosen as De Grootste Nederlander
("Greatest Dutchman of all-time"), followed closely by William of Orange, the leader of the independence war that established the precursor to the present-day Netherlands. The election was not considered representative, as it was held by viewers' voting through the internet and by phoning in.
Theo van Gogh
had been murdered a few days before by a Muslim, which likely affected people's voting in the TV contest for Fortuyn. The program later revealed that William of Orange had received the most votes, but many could not be counted until after the official closing time of the television show (and the proclamation of the winner), due to technical problems. The official rules of the show said that votes counted before the end of the show would be decisive, but it was suggested that all votes correctly cast before the closing of the vote would be counted. Following the official rules, the outcome was not changed.
Fortuyn's political career and popularity suggested a change in the Dutch people's views of their society as tolerant with integrated multiple cultures.
, he brought it up as a debatable issue.
Right-wing politicians
gained power after Fortuyn's death, such as former Minister for Integration & Immigration
Rita Verdonk
and the prominent critic of Islam
, Member of the House of Representatives Geert Wilders
. These politicians often focused on the debate over cultural assimilation
and integration.
obtained and publicized a secret report of the intelligence department of the Rotterdam police. Fortuyn and several other members of his party had been the subject of an investigation by the intelligence services. An anonymous informant claimed that Fortuyn had engaged in sex with Moroccan
youths aged between 16 and 21; this was legal under Dutch law. The Ministry of the Interior informed parliament that the report contained factual inaccuracies, and that the trustworthiness of the original source could not be verified.
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
politician, civil servant, sociologist, author and professor who formed his own party, Pim Fortuyn List (Lijst Pim Fortuyn or LPF).
Fortuyn provoked controversy with his stated views about immigrants and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. He called Islam "a backward culture", and said that if it were legally possible he would close the borders for Muslim immigrants. He was labelled a far-right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
by his opponents and in the media, but he fiercely rejected this label and explicitly distanced himself from "far-right" politicians such as the Belgian Filip Dewinter
Filip Dewinter
Philip Michel Frans "Filip" Dewinter is a Flemish politician in Belgium. He is one of the leading members of Vlaams Belang, a right-wing Flemish nationalist and secessionist political party...
, the Austrian Jörg Haider
Jörg Haider
Jörg Haider was an Austrian politician. He was Governor of Carinthia on two occasions, the long-time leader of the Austrian Freedom Party and later Chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Austria , a breakaway party from the FPÖ.Haider was controversial within Austria and abroad for comments...
, or Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
whenever compared to them. While Fortuyn compared his own politics to centre-right politicians such as Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
of Italy, he also admired former Dutch Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Joop den Uyl
Joop den Uyl
Johannes Marten den Uijl, known as Joop den Uyl was a Dutch politician of the Labour Party . He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from May 11, 1973 until December 19, 1977....
, a socialist. Fortuyn however repeatedly described himself and LPF's ideology as pragmatism
Pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice...
and not populism
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
. Fortuyn was openly homosexual
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
.
Fortuyn was assassinated
Assassination of Pim Fortuyn
On May 6, 2002, Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was assassinated in Hilversum, North Holland, by Volkert van der Graaf nine days before the Dutch general election of 2002 which he was widely expected to win.-Shooting:...
during the 2002 Dutch national election campaign
Dutch general election, 2002
The General Election to the House of Representatives of the States-General of the Netherlands was held in the Netherlands on May 15, 2002....
by Volkert van der Graaf
Volkert van der Graaf
Volkert van der Graaf is known for assassinating the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn on 6 May 2002 during the political campaign. Van der Graaf was an animal rights and environmental activist, founder of a group that worked through litigation...
. In court at his trial, van der Graaf said he murdered Fortuyn to stop him from exploiting Muslims as "scapegoats" and targeting "the weak members of society" in seeking political power.
Early life and education
Fortuyn was born on 19 February 1948 in DriehuisDriehuis
Driehuis is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Velsen, and lies about 8 km north of Haarlem....
, as the third child to a Catholic family. In 1967 he began to study sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
at the University of Amsterdam but transferred after a few months to the Vrije Universiteit
Vrije Universiteit
The Vrije Universiteit is a university in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch name is often abbreviated as VU and in English the university uses the name "VU University". The university is located on a compact urban campus in the southern part of Amsterdam in the Buitenveldert district...
in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. In 1971 he ended his study with the Academic degree
Academic degree
An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
Doctorandus
Doctorandus
Doctorandus is a Dutch academic title according to the pre-bachelor-master system. The title is acquired by passing the doctoraalexamen, traditionally a matriculation exam for admission to study at doctoral level....
. In 1981 he received a doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
at the University of Groningen
University of Groningen
The University of Groningen , located in the city of Groningen, was founded in 1614. It is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands as well as one of its largest. Since its inception more than 100,000 students have graduated...
as a Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
.
Career
Fortuyn worked as a lecturer at the Nyenrode Business UniversiteitNyenrode Business Universiteit
Nyenrode Business Universiteit, also spelled as Nijenrode, is a Dutch business school and the only private university in the Netherlands. Founded in 1946, it is located on a large estate in the town of Breukelen, between Amsterdam and Utrecht.-History:...
and as an associate professor at the University of Groningen
University of Groningen
The University of Groningen , located in the city of Groningen, was founded in 1614. It is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands as well as one of its largest. Since its inception more than 100,000 students have graduated...
, where he taught Marxist sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
. He was a confessed Marxist at the time. Later, he joined the Dutch Labour Party.
In 1989 Fortuyn became director of a government
Politics of the Netherlands
The politics of the Netherlands take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, a constitutional monarchy and a decentralised unitary state. The Netherlands is described as a consociational state...
organisation administering student transport cards. In 1990 he moved to Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
. From 1991 to 1995, he was an extraordinary professor at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, appointed to the Albeda-chair in "employment conditions in public service".
When his contract ended, he made a career of public speaking and writing books and press columns, gradually becoming involved in politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
. Fortuyn was openly gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, and said in a 2002 interview that he was Catholic.
Political career
In 1992 Fortuyn wrote "Aan het volk van Nederland" (To the people of the Netherlands), declaring he was the successor to the charismatic but controversial 18th-century Dutch politician Joan van der Capellen tot den PolJoan van der Capellen tot den Pol
Joan Derk, Baron van der Capellen tot den Pol was a Dutch nobleman who played a prominent role in the formation of the Batavian Republic and the revolutionary events that preceded its formation...
. A one-time communist
Communist Party of the Netherlands
The Communist Party of the Netherlands was a Dutch communist political party. The CPN is one of the predecessors of the GreenLeft.- Foundation :...
and former member of the social-democratic Dutch Labour Party, Fortuyn was elected "lijsttrekker
Lijsttrekker
Lijsttrekker is a Dutch term for the top candidate of a party on a party list. He or she is almost always the party's political leader. After an election, this person usually leads the party's faction in the States-General, or serves in a senior position in the Cabinet if his party is part of...
" of the newly formed Livable Netherlands
Livable Netherlands
Livable Netherlands was a Dutch political party. Pim Fortuyn began his political career in the party.-Party history:Historically there have always been parties in States-Provincial and Gemeenteraad that were independent from the national party system...
party by a large majority on 26 November 2001, prior to the Dutch general election of 2002
Dutch general election, 2002
The General Election to the House of Representatives of the States-General of the Netherlands was held in the Netherlands on May 15, 2002....
.
On 9 February 2002, he was interviewed by the Volkskrant, a Dutch newspaper (see below). His statements were considered so controversial that the party dismissed him as lijsttrekker the next day. Fortuyn had said that he favoured putting an end to Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
, if possible. Having been rejected by Livable Netherlands, Fortuyn founded his own party LPF (Pim Fortuyn List) on 11 February 2002. Many Livable Netherlands supporters transferred their support to the new party.
As lijsttrekker for the Livable Rotterdam party, a local issues party, he achieved a major victory in the Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
district council elections in early March 2002. The new party won about 36% of the seats, making it the largest party in the council. For the first time since the Second World War, the Dutch Labour Party was out of power in Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
.
Fortuyn's victory made him the subject of hundreds of interviews
Interviews
Interviews is:# the plural form of "interview"# a compilation album by Bob Marley & the Wailers, see Interviews # a C++ toolkit for the X Window System, see InterViews...
during the next three months, and he made many statements
News release
A press release, news release, media release, press statement or video release is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something ostensibly newsworthy...
about his political ideology. In March he released his book The Mess of Eight Purple Years (Puinhopen Van Acht Jaar Paars), which he used as his political agenda
Political agenda
A political agenda is a set of issues and policies laid out by an executive or cabinet in government that tries to influence current and near-future political news and debate....
for the upcoming general election
Dutch general election, 2002
The General Election to the House of Representatives of the States-General of the Netherlands was held in the Netherlands on May 15, 2002....
.
Assassination
Assassination of Pim Fortuyn
On May 6, 2002, Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was assassinated in Hilversum, North Holland, by Volkert van der Graaf nine days before the Dutch general election of 2002 which he was widely expected to win.-Shooting:...
in Hilversum
Hilversum
is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Located in the region called "'t Gooi", it is the largest town in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller villages...
, North Holland
North Holland
North Holland |West Frisian]]: Noard-Holland) is a province situated on the North Sea in the northwest part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is Haarlem and its largest city is Amsterdam.-Geography:...
, by Volkert van der Graaf
Volkert van der Graaf
Volkert van der Graaf is known for assassinating the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn on 6 May 2002 during the political campaign. Van der Graaf was an animal rights and environmental activist, founder of a group that worked through litigation...
. The attack took place in a parking lot outside a radio studio where Fortuyn had just given an interview. This was nine days before the general election
Dutch general election, 2002
The General Election to the House of Representatives of the States-General of the Netherlands was held in the Netherlands on May 15, 2002....
, for which he was running. The attacker was pursued by Hans Smolders, Fortuyn's driver, and was arrested by the police shortly afterward, still in possession of a gun
Handgun
A handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....
. Months later, van der Graaf confessed in court to the Netherlands' first modern-age political assassination (excluding WW II events). He was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
The assassination
Assassination of Pim Fortuyn
On May 6, 2002, Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was assassinated in Hilversum, North Holland, by Volkert van der Graaf nine days before the Dutch general election of 2002 which he was widely expected to win.-Shooting:...
shocked many residents of the Netherlands and highlighted the cultural clashes within the country. Politicians from all parties suspended campaigning. After consultation with LPF, the government decided not to postpone the elections. As Dutch law did not permit modifying the ballots, Fortuyn became a posthumous candidate. The LPF made an unprecedented debut in the House of Representatives by winning 26 seats (17% of the 150 seats in the house). By the following year, the party had lost support, winning only eight seats. It won no seats in the 2006 elections
Dutch general election, 2006
The General Election to the House of Representatives of the States-General of the Netherlands was held in the Netherlands on November 22, 2006. And followed the call for new elections after the fall of the Second Balkenende cabinet....
, and consequently the party had no seats left in the parliament
States-General of the Netherlands
The States-General of the Netherlands is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets in at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The archaic Dutch word "staten" originally related to the feudal classes in which medieval...
.
During the last months of his life, Fortuyn had become closer to the Catholic Church. To the surprise of many commentators and Dutch TV hosts, Fortuyn insisted on Fr. Louis Berger, a parish priest
Curate
A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...
from The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, accompanying him in some of his last TV appearances. According to the New York Times, Berger had become his "friend and confessor" during the last weeks of his life.
Fortuyn was initially buried in Driehuis
Driehuis
Driehuis is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Velsen, and lies about 8 km north of Haarlem....
in the Netherlands. He was re-interred on 20 July 2002, at San Giorgio della Richinvelda
San Giorgio della Richinvelda
San Giorgio della Richinvelda is a comune in the Province of Pordenone in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about 90 km northwest of Trieste and about 20 km northeast of Pordenone...
, in the province of Pordenone
Province of Pordenone
The Province of Pordenone is a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Pordenone. The territory was carved out of the Province of Udine in 1968....
in Italy, where he had owned a house.
Views on Islam and immigration
In August 2001, Fortuyn was quoted in the Rotterdams Dagblad newspaper saying, "I am also in favour of a cold warCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
with Islam. I see Islam as an extraordinary threat, as a hostile religion." In the TV program, Business class, Fortuyn said that Muslims in The Netherlands did not accept Dutch society. He appeared on the program several times. It was moderated by his friend Harry Mens. Since his death, commentators have suggested Fortuyn's words were interpreted rather harshly, if not wrongly. For instance, he said that Muslims in the Netherlands needed to accept living together with the Dutch, and that if this was unacceptable for them, then they were free to leave. His concluding words in the TV program were "...I want to live together with the Muslim people, but it takes two to tango."
He said that he did not intend to "unload our Moroccan hooligans" onto the Moroccan King Hassan
Hassan II of Morocco
King Hassan II l-ḥasan aṯ-ṯānī, dial. el-ḥasan ettâni); July 9, 1929 – July 23, 1999) was King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999...
. Hassan had died three years earlier. He considered Article 7 of the constitution, which asserts freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
, of more importance than Article 1, which forbids discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
on the basis of religion, life principles, political inclination, race, or sexual preference. Fortuyn distanced himself from Hans Janmaat
Hans Janmaat
Johannes Gerardus Hendrikus "Hans" Janmaat was a Dutch politician of the Centre Party and later his own formed Centre Democrats . He was Parliamentary leader of the Centre Party in the House of Representatives from September 16, 1982 until October 15, 1984 when he was expelled from the party...
of the Centrum Democraten
Centre Democrats (Netherlands)
The Centre Democrats was a political party in the Netherlands. Founded in 1984 by members who split out from the Centre Party , the Centre Democrats was joined one month later by the only CP Member of Parliament—Hans Janmaat. Janmaat went on to become the leader of the party, which...
, who in the 1980s wanted to remove all foreigners from the country and was repeatedly convicted for discrimination and hate speech
Hate speech
Hate speech is, outside the law, any communication that disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or other characteristic....
.
Fortuyn proposed that all people who already resided in the Netherlands would be able to stay, but he emphasized the need of the immigrants to adopt Dutch society's consensus on human rights as their own. He said "If it were legally possible, I'd say no more Muslims will get in here", claiming that the influx of Muslims would threaten freedoms in the liberal Dutch society. He thought Muslim culture had never undergone a process of modernisation and therefore still lacked acceptance of democracy and women's, gays', lesbians' and minorities' rights. He feared Muslims would try to replace the Dutch legal system with the shari'a law
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
.
He said he was concerned about intolerance in the Muslim community. In a televised debate in 2002, "Fortuyn baited the Muslim cleric by flaunting his homosexuality. Finally the imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
exploded, denouncing Fortuyn in strongly anti-homosexual
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
terms. Fortuyn calmly turned to the camera and, addressing viewers directly, told them that this is the kind of Trojan horse
Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the stratagem that allowed the Greeks finally to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside...
of intolerance the Dutch are inviting into their society in the name of multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
."
When asked by the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant whether he hated Islam, he replied:
Fortuyn used the word achterlijk, literally meaning "backward", but commonly used as an insult in the sense of "retarded". After his use of "achterlijk" caused an uproar, Fortuyn said he had used the word with its literal meaning of "backward".
Fortuyn wrote Against the Islamization of Our Culture (1997) (in Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
).
Other views
He held liberal views favouring the drug policy of the NetherlandsDrug policy of the Netherlands
The drug policy of the Netherlands officially has four major objectives:# To prevent recreational drug use and to treat and rehabilitate recreational drug users.# To reduce harm to users....
, same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage in the Netherlands
Same-sex marriage has been legal in the Netherlands since 1 April 2001...
, euthanasia
Euthanasia in the Netherlands
Euthanasia in the Netherlands is regulated by the "Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide Act" from 2002. It states that euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are not punishable if the attending physician acts in accordance with criteria of due care...
, and related positions.
Criticism
Fortuyn was compared with the politicians Jörg Haider and Jean-Marie Le Pen in the foreign press. These comparisons were often referred to by Dutch reporters and politicians. An explicit comparison with Le Pen was made by Ad MelkertAd Melkert
Adrianus Petrus Wilhelmus "Ad" Melkert is a Dutch politician of the Labour Party . He served as chair of the parliamentary party and Minister of Social Affairs and Employment for the social-democratic PvdA. He led the PvdA to a historic low in the contentious 2002 general elections, which were won...
, then lijsttrekker
Lijsttrekker
Lijsttrekker is a Dutch term for the top candidate of a party on a party list. He or she is almost always the party's political leader. After an election, this person usually leads the party's faction in the States-General, or serves in a senior position in the Cabinet if his party is part of...
of the Dutch Labour Party, who said in Emmen on 24 April 2002:
On 5 May, the day before the assassination, Fortuyn debated with Melkert in a debate organized by the Algemeen Dagblad
Algemeen Dagblad
The Algemeen Dagblad is a Dutch newspaper. Founded in Rotterdam in 1946, it currently has a daily circulation of 315,000. The newspaper is owned by AD NieuwsMedia, a joint venture between Wegener and PCM Uitgevers....
newspaper about demonization
Demonization
Demonization is the reinterpretation of polytheistic deities as evil, lying demons by other religions, generally monotheistic and henotheistic ones...
of himself. In it he said that he often had to tell journalists that the image created of him in the media was incorrect..
Columnist Jan Blokker
Jan Blokker
Jan Andries Blokker, Sr. was a Dutch journalist, columnist, publicist, writer, and amateur historian. In The Netherlands, Blokker was best known for his columns in De Volkskrant, which he wrote between 1968 and 2006....
wrote:
Legacy
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
VVD
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party located in the Netherlands. The VVD supports private enterprise in the Netherlands and is often perceived as an economic liberal party in contrast to the social-liberal Democrats 66 alongside which it sits in...
and especially the social democratic
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
PvdA (whose parliamentary group was halved in size); both parties replaced their leaders shortly after their losses. The election winners were the Pim Fortuyn List, and the Christian democratic
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...
CDA
Christian Democratic Appeal
The Christian Democratic Appeal is a centre-right Dutch Christian democratic political party. It suffered severe losses in the 2010 elections and fell from the first to the fourth place...
. Some commentators think that Fortuyn's perceived martyrdom created greater support for the LPF, which seems likely given its quick later decline.
The Netherlands has made its asylum policy more strict. Some have objected to what they think is a harsher political and social climate, especially towards immigrants and Muslims.
Contemporary Dutch politics is more polarized than it has been in recent years, especially on the issues for which Fortuyn was best known. People debate the success of their multicultural society
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
, and whether they need to better assimilate newcomers. The government's decision to expel numerous asylum seekers whose applications had failed was controversial. Fortuyn had advocated an amnesty for asylum seekers' already residing in the Netherlands.
The coalition
Coalition government
A coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several political parties cooperate. The usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament...
cabinet of CDA
Christian Democratic Appeal
The Christian Democratic Appeal is a centre-right Dutch Christian democratic political party. It suffered severe losses in the 2010 elections and fell from the first to the fourth place...
, LPF and VVD
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party located in the Netherlands. The VVD supports private enterprise in the Netherlands and is often perceived as an economic liberal party in contrast to the social-liberal Democrats 66 alongside which it sits in...
fell within three months, due to infighting within the LPF. In the following elections, the LPF was left with only 8 seats in parliament (out of 150) and was not included in the new government. Political commentators speculated that discontented voters might vote for a non-traditional party, if a viable alternative was at hand. In recent times the right-wing Party for Freedom
Party for Freedom
The Party for Freedom is a Dutch right-wing political party. Founded in 2005 as the successor to Geert Wilders' one-man party in the House of Representatives, it won nine seats in the 2006 general election, making it the fifth largest party in parliament, and third largest opposition party. It...
, which has a strong stance on immigration and integration, won 9 (out of 150) seats in the 2006 elections and 24 in 2010.
In 2004, in a TV show, Fortuyn was chosen as De Grootste Nederlander
De Grootste Nederlander
De Grootste Nederlander was a public poll held in 2004 by the broadcasting company KRO of the Publieke Omroep. The series is based on the BBC's 100 Greatest Britons...
("Greatest Dutchman of all-time"), followed closely by William of Orange, the leader of the independence war that established the precursor to the present-day Netherlands. The election was not considered representative, as it was held by viewers' voting through the internet and by phoning in.
Theo van Gogh
Theo van Gogh (film director)
Theodoor "Theo" van Gogh was a Dutch film director, film producer, columnist, author and actor.Van Gogh worked with the Somali-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali to produce the film Submission, which criticized the treatment of women in Islam and aroused controversy among Muslims...
had been murdered a few days before by a Muslim, which likely affected people's voting in the TV contest for Fortuyn. The program later revealed that William of Orange had received the most votes, but many could not be counted until after the official closing time of the television show (and the proclamation of the winner), due to technical problems. The official rules of the show said that votes counted before the end of the show would be decisive, but it was suggested that all votes correctly cast before the closing of the vote would be counted. Following the official rules, the outcome was not changed.
Fortuyn's political career and popularity suggested a change in the Dutch people's views of their society as tolerant with integrated multiple cultures.
"First of all, one can conclude that criticism on political correctness and on the ideal of the multicultural society has broken through for real relatively late.... In the end it was Pim Fortuyn, the electoral success of the LPF and namely the murder on Fortuyn which led to the definitive breakthrough."Although Fortuyn did not advocate segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
, he brought it up as a debatable issue.
Right-wing politicians
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
gained power after Fortuyn's death, such as former Minister for Integration & Immigration
Ministry of Justice (Netherlands)
The Ministry of Security and Justice is the Dutch ministry of justice. Until 14 October 2010, the ministry was just called Ministry of Justice , but at the start of the Rutte cabinet, the name changed because it had taken over some public safety duties from the Ministry of the Interior...
Rita Verdonk
Rita Verdonk
Maria Cornelia Frederika "Rita" Verdonk is a retired Dutch politician initially of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy until she was expelled in October 2007, she later formed her own party Proud of the Netherlands . She served as Minister for Integration and Immigration in Cabinets...
and the prominent critic of Islam
Criticism of Islam
Criticism of Islam has existed since Islam's formative stages. Early written criticism came from Christians, prior to the ninth century, many of whom viewed Islam as a radical Christian heresy...
, Member of the House of Representatives Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders is a Dutch right-wing politician and leader of the Party for Freedom , the third-largest political party in the Netherlands. He is the Parliamentary group leader of his party in the Dutch House of Representatives...
. These politicians often focused on the debate over cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
and integration.
Accusations of sexual misconduct
In 2005, three years after Fortuyn's death, the Dutch journalist Peter R. de VriesPeter R. de Vries
Peter Rudolf de Vries is a Dutch Investigative Journalist and crime reporter. His television program covers high profile cases and set a Dutch television viewing record. In 2005, he started his own political party which was disbanded soon after.-Early life and career:Peter Rudolf de Vries was born...
obtained and publicized a secret report of the intelligence department of the Rotterdam police. Fortuyn and several other members of his party had been the subject of an investigation by the intelligence services. An anonymous informant claimed that Fortuyn had engaged in sex with Moroccan
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
youths aged between 16 and 21; this was legal under Dutch law. The Ministry of the Interior informed parliament that the report contained factual inaccuracies, and that the trustworthiness of the original source could not be verified.
Books
- Tegen de islamisering van onze cultuur: Nederlandse identiteit als fundament (Against the Islamisation of Our Culture), (A.W. Bruna, 1997), (ISBN 90-229-8338-2)
- 50 jaar Israel, hoe lang nog?: Tegen het tolereren van fundamentalisme (Fifty Years Israel, how much left?) (Bruna, 1998), (ISBN 90-229-8407-9)
- De Puinhopen Van Acht Jaar Paars: de Wachtlijsten in de Gezondheidszorg, de Zorgwekkende Staat Van Het Onderwijs, de Problemen Met Betrekking Tot de V (The rubble of eight purple years), (Karakter Uitgevers, 2002), (ISBN 9-0611-2911-7)