Pim Fortuyn
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"You are an exceptionally inferior human being" --Marcel van Dam against Pim Fortuyn "Ik heb ook enig recht van spreken, toen ik in 1970 voor mijn homoseksualiteit uitkwam was dat in die reden zonder meer een grond voor ontslag." --Theo van Gogh interview with Pim Fortuyn on November 4, 2001 "Pim Fortuyn", a politician who had been assassinated two years previously, and whose programme came down, essentially, to expressing his xenophobia and his desire to see Muslims leaving the country (his book was called Against the Islamization of Our Culture)." --The Fear of Barbarians: Beyond the Clash of Civilizations (2010) by Tzvetan Todorov, page 128 "Pim Fortuyn noemde deze brigade 'de linkse kerk', wat met terugwerkende kracht nog vriendelijk was uitgedrukt, zo is de laatste jaren wel duidelijk geworden. Oudlinkse kopstukken uit die kerk zouden dan voorganger zijn - maar hun feitelijke."--Hollands welvaren: Nederland 2004-2008 (2007), page 83, Joost Zwagerman |
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Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn (19 February 1948 – 6 May 2002), was a Dutch politician, civil servant, sociologist, author and professor who formed his own party, Pim Fortuyn List (Lijst Pim Fortuyn or LPF) in 2002.
Fortuyn was often regarded as controversial due to his outspoken views about multiculturalism, immigration and Islam in the Netherlands. He called Islam "a backward culture", and was quoted as saying that if it were legally possible, he would close the borders for Muslim immigrants. Fortuyn also supported tougher measures against crime and opposed state bureaucracy, wanting to reduce Dutch financial contribution to the European Union. He was labelled a far-right populist by his opponents and in the media, but he fiercely rejected this label.
Fortuyn 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 he 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 social democrat, and Democratic U.S. president John F. Kennedy. Fortuyn also criticised the polder model and the policies of the outgoing government of Wim Kok and repeatedly described himself and LPF's ideology as pragmatic and not populistic.
Fortuyn was assassinated during the 2002 Dutch national election campaign by Volkert van der Graaf, a left-wing animal rights activist. 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.
See also
- Theo van Gogh (film director)
- Multiculturalism in the Netherlands
- National trauma
- Islam in the Netherlands
