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Posted: 5/6/2002 9:45:57 PM EDT
Right-Wing Dutch Politician Fortuyn Shot Dead  

By MARCEL VAN DE HOEF
.c The Associated Press

HILVERSUM, Netherlands (May 6) - In the first assassination in modern Dutch history, a lone gunman shot far-right leader Pim Fortuyn on Monday, nine days before elections expected to catapult his anti-immigration party into a position of national power.

Fortuyn, 54, a former academic and columnist who led an openly gay lifestyle, was shot six times in the head, neck and chest as he left a radio interview.

Police said they arrested a suspect whom they described as a ``white man of Dutch nationality,'' but had not established an identity or a motive. Prosecutor Theo Hofstee said the suspect refused to talk, and will be arraigned within days.

``After this assassination, Pim Fortuyn is no more,'' said outgoing Prime Minister Wim Kok in The Hague.

Police clashed with hundreds of Fortuyn supporters near Parliament while the Cabinet held talks on postponing May 15 elections. Protesters smashed shop windows and at least two cars were set on fire in a parking garage under government offices. Police in riot gear and with dogs dispersed crowds with water cannons, and detained several rioters.

Fortuyn had expressed fears for his safety after protesters threw two cream pies laced with urine in his face a few weeks ago. But minutes before his death, he responded to a question by the 3FM radio station in Hilversum, 12 miles southeast of Amsterdam, on how old he would live to be: ``I'm not going to die soon. I'm going to live to be 87.''

His body lay for hours near the entrance to the building after paramedics tried to revive him.

Fortuyn's death immediately caused a halt to campaigning. Opinion polls had predicted Fortuyn's new party, created earlier this year, would get more than one-sixth of the 150 seats in parliament, which could put his party in the ruling coalition.

Fortuyn (pronounced fore-TOWN) had dictated debate during the campaign with verbal attacks on the country's growing Muslim population and strident criticism of the national government. He called Islam a ``backward'' culture and said the Netherlands should reconsider its law guaranteeing freedom from discrimination.

Kok called his shooting ``indescribable.''

``Respect for each other means you fight with words, not bullets,'' Kok said in a televised interview, warning of a threat to Dutch democracy. ``For God's sake, let's remain calm.''

``These are things you thought were just not possible in the Netherlands,'' said Ad Melkert, new leader of the ruling Labor Party and its candidate for prime minister. ``It's a low-point for our democracy.''

It was believed to be the most prominent killing of a European politician since Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was gunned down in Stockholm in 1986. In Dutch history, the first leader of the Dutch republic who led the war for independence against Spain, William the Silent, was shot to death in 1584 in the city of Delft.

Fortuyn was widely dismissed as a serious political threat until last March, when his newly formed party, ``Pim Fortuyn's List,'' swept 35 percent of the vote in local elections in Rotterdam, a port city with a large immigrant population.

``Pim was not an extremist. He wanted to do something for the working class to save us from taxes and do something for the normal people and not for the immigrants,'' said one protester outside parliament, Leslie Gonggeyp, a truck driver.

Link Posted: 5/6/2002 9:46:58 PM EDT
[#1]
Following his lead, other parties pledged to re-examine their country's generous refugee policy. About one person in eight comes from a non-Dutch background, and nearly half of those come from Islamic countries.

Fortuyn's rise mirrored a right-wing resurgence in several European countries, lately highlighted by the anti-immigrant Jean Marie Le Pen's surprise showing in the first round of French presidential elections. Le Pen was soundly defeated in Sunday's run-off vote by incumbent Jacques Chirac.

Nevertheless, Fortuyn had dissociated himself from Le Pen and other European extreme right leaders.

Far-right parties and mainstream politicians across Europe condemned the slaying. In Austria, home to the extreme-right Freedom Party, spokesman Karl Schweitzer said he was shaken by the assassination.

``It is madness,'' Schweitzer said. ``It always starts with verbal violence, and in that respect some serious disarmament will be needed at some point.''

British Prime Minister Tony Blair canceled a planned trip to the Netherlands. ``No matter what feelings political figures arouse, the ballot box is the place to express them,'' Blair said.

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt told Belgian media on a visit to Skopje, Macedonia, that he was extremely shocked. ``I believed something like this was impossible in this day in age, in the European Union, in the 21st Century,'' he said.

Fortuyn's platform seemed out of place in the Netherlands, which has a reputation for liberalism. It was the first country to legalize gay marriages, regulate prostitution, approve and control euthanasia, and tolerate the over-the-counter sale of marijuana in hundreds of ``coffee shops.''

Though the Dutch are tolerant of such subcultures, Fortuyn's popularity exposed a deep vein of suspicion of immigrants, often blamed for a perceived rise in crime and drug abuse.

In the Netherlands, most political leaders travel without bodyguards, often using public transportation. Fortuyn occasionally had bodyguards, but his lawyer said he could not afford 24-hour armed protection.

05/06/02 22:24 EDT
Link Posted: 5/6/2002 11:44:06 PM EDT
[#2]
Here are some quotes from a Yahoo article.


Dutch media said the suspected killer was known to intelligence services as an "extreme leftist" from the deeply religious small central Dutch town of Harderwijk.
...
Small groups of men of African -- mostly Moroccan -- origin shouted and celebrated Fortuyn's death, Rotterdam police said.

"I am not shocked (by the murder), he is just like Le Pen. He says Islam is bad, he is a racist," said Mohammed Abdullah, 19, who was born in the Netherlands to Moroccan immigrants.

But Ryan Jagram, who comes from Surinam, defended Fortuyn.

"I knew him personally. He was absolutely no racist..." Jagram, 32, told Reuters. "He was really very afraid of the Islamisation of society. There is a really big difference between Le Pen and Fortuyn."
View Quote


[url]story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=716&e=10&cid=578&u=/nm/20020507/ts_nm/dutch_politics_fortuyn_dc_12[/url]

It's funny how in Europe, those who we would consider moderates are branded extreme right-wing. It just goes to show how screwed up they are.

In essence, we have a homosexual, anti-immigration politician who put together an inclusive, if not eclectic, political party who is then murdered by a left-wing radical for what appears to be anti-immigration sentiments.

Looking at Fortuyn and his party, one would think the left would consider him all the rage, but instead, a single issue, immigration, resulted in his death. Yep, the left sure love their fellow man.

This is something to think about. The man is killed because he feared the Islamisation of his nation. This is something all thinking men, and supporters of liberty, should fear.

Liberty and Islam are clearly mutually exclusive.
Link Posted: 5/7/2002 1:31:14 AM EDT
[#3]
I feel sorry for all the "Dutch" muslims. Too bad they have to go to another land (and a majority christian one at that) to make a living. Allah just could not provide for them back home. [:(]

They don't think they should change in the least. Their sole focus seems to be on continuing the asylum seekers charade, bringing in as many of their fellow countrymen as possible. Nothing racial about that of course.

The problem (among others) is that there is no expectation for them to assimilate (like the US, though often unrealized) and they are often very militant about it. It's no different than moving marrakech to Amsterdam. The immigrants are extremely ethnocentric and this is alarming even moderate people who wonder why these endless immigration policies are in their interest at all. The Netherlands is one of the most crowded countries in Europe, but that doesn't matter to the... let's call them egalitarians... I'm feeling charitable.

The brazeness of the people they have taken in ("Small groups of men of African -- mostly Moroccan -- origin shouted and celebrated Fortuyn's death, Rotterdam police said.") should be no surprise to anyone after what happened on 9-11, not just in the muslim world, but here in N. America, Europe and Australia (where outbursts of spontaneous celebration punctuated the grief of the majority). They have been taught that their host countries are tolerant places. And of course people don't starve in Western Europe. So if they do not have the language skills to even get a job they can just go on the dole and have a few more kids.

[Edited to add: I'm surprised you found that quote on yahoo. It might give rise to bad feelings about the people in question and thus not be something to publish.)
Link Posted: 5/7/2002 1:42:03 AM EDT
[#4]
Quoted:
It's funny how in Europe, those who we would consider moderates are branded extreme right-wing. It just goes to show how screwed up they are.
View Quote


Yeah, the spectrum is skewed. You hear "far-right extremist" all the time, and never "far-left extremist" with communists who advocate the seizure of private property and trotskyites running for election (they differentiate themselves you know.)

In essence, we have a homosexual, anti-immigration politician who put together an inclusive, if not eclectic, political party who is then murdered by a left-wing radical for what appears to be anti-immigration sentiments.
View Quote


A lone gunman. A kook. Don't try to connect him to anyone!

Looking at Fortuyn and his party, one would think the left would consider him all the rage, but instead, a single issue, immigration, resulted in his death. Yep, the left sure love their fellow man.
View Quote


In this day and age they are the goose-stepping regimented brownshirts who use violence and intimidation to further their political ends.

This is something to think about. The man is killed because he feared the Islamisation of his nation. This is something all thinking men, and supporters of liberty, should fear.
View Quote


Don't get crazy now! If another forty million muslim immigrants descend upon us we'll all be the richer for it. Heck, why stop there... four hundred million wound be ten times as beneficial. (The Islamic One Billion population will double in another generation or so, and they'll need somewhere to go... how's your house?)
Link Posted: 5/7/2002 4:03:56 AM EDT
[#5]
I wonder why the media hasn't even mentioned (at least not that I saw) that the Netherlands bans private ownership of virtually all weapons.
Link Posted: 5/7/2002 4:14:13 AM EDT
[#6]
Quoted:
I wonder why the media hasn't even mentioned (at least not that I saw) that the Netherlands bans private ownership of virtually all weapons.
View Quote



Well that might be due to the fact that you are WRONG!

If you recall Kuieper is a member of AR15.com and he is Dutch...

Its important that when you spout facts that you are RIGHT!
Link Posted: 5/7/2002 2:44:27 PM EDT
[#7]
The WSJ had some interesting comments about him in their "Best of the Web" today.  The rest of the news coverage has portrayed him as a real asshole ("Republican-like, deserved to die"), but the WSJ's reporters seem to think he was practically a Libertarian in outlook.
[url]http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110001674[/url]
Link Posted: 5/7/2002 2:52:04 PM EDT
[#8]
Link Posted: 5/7/2002 5:32:54 PM EDT
[#9]
Quoted:
Heck, why stop there... four hundred million wound be ten times as beneficial. (The Islamic One Billion population will double in another generation or so, and they'll need somewhere to go... how's your house?)
View Quote


I think I can squeeze a couple in between the ammo cans. [}:D]
Link Posted: 5/7/2002 7:00:27 PM EDT
[#10]
He was best described as a libertarian, not a "Nazi" or "Fascist" like the leftist Europeans decry anyone who questions the wisdom of unfettered immigration from the 3rd world.

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