Pim Fortuyn | |
|---|---|
 Fortuyn on 4 May 2002, two days before his assassination | |
| Born | Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn (1948-02-19)19 February 1948 Velsen, Netherlands |
| Died | 6 May 2002(2002-05-06) (aged 54) Hilversum, Netherlands |
| Cause of death | Assassination (gunshot wounds) |
| Resting place | San Giorgio della Richinvelda, Italy |
| Other names | Pim Fortuijn |
| Education | VU Amsterdam (Bachelor of Social Science,Master of Social Science) University of Groningen (PhD) |
| Occupations | Politician · civil servant ·Sociologist Corporate director ·Political consultant ·Political pundit · Author · Columnist · Publisher · Teacher · professor |
| Political party | Labour Party (1974–1989) People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (mid 1990s) Livable Netherlands (2001–2002) Livable Rotterdam (2001–2002) Pim Fortuyn List (2002) |
| Municipal Councilor in Rotterdam | |
| In office 6 March 2002 – 6 May 2002 | |
| Succeeded by | Dries Mosch |
| Signature | |
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Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known asPim Fortuyn (Dutch:[ˈpiɱforˈtœn]ⓘ; 19 February 1948 – 6 May 2002), was a Dutch politician, author, civil servant, businessman, sociologist and academic who founded the partyPim Fortuyn List (Lijst Pim Fortuyn or LPF) in 2002.[1]
Fortuyn worked as a extraodinary professor at theErasmus University of Rotterdam until 1995 after which he went for a business career and was an advisor to the Dutch government on social infrastructure. He then became prominent in the Netherlands as a press columnist, writer and media commentator.
Initially aMarxist who was sympathetic to theCommunist Party of the Netherlands, and later a member of the DutchLabour Party in the 1970s, Fortuyn's beliefs began to shift to the right in the 1990s, especially related to the immigration policies of the Netherlands. Fortuyn criticisedmulticulturalism,immigration andIslam 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.[2] Fortuyn also supported tougher measures against crime and opposed statebureaucracy,[3] wanting to reduce the Dutch financial contribution to theEuropean Union.[4] He was labelled afar-rightpopulist by his opponents and in the media, but he fiercely rejected this label.[5] Fortuyn wasopenly gay and a supporter of gay rights.[6]
Fortuyn explicitly distanced himself from "far-right" politicians such as the BelgianFilip Dewinter, AustrianJörg Haider, or FrenchmanJean-Marie Le Pen whenever compared to them. While he compared his own politics to centre-right politicians such asSilvio Berlusconi of Italy andEdmund Stoiber of Germany, he also admired former Dutch Prime MinisterJoop den Uyl, a social democrat, and Democratic U.S. presidentJohn F. Kennedy. Fortuyn also criticised thepolder model and the policies of the outgoing government ofWim Kok and repeatedly described himself andLPF's ideology aspragmatic and notpopulistic. He also became known for his unconventional and flamboyant way of debating which was considered unique in Dutch politics at the time.[7] In March 2002, his newly created LPF became the largest party in Fortuyn's hometownRotterdam during the Dutch municipal elections held that year.[8]
Fortuyn wasassassinated during the2002 Dutch national election campaign[9][10][11] byVolkert van der Graaf, a left-wing environmentalist andanimal rights activist.[12] 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.[13][14] The LPF went on to poll in second place during the election but went into decline soon after before it was ultimately disbanded at a national level in 2008. Despite this, Fortuyn's ideas and legacy continued to have an impact upon Dutch politics. Observers have described his ideological influence asFortuynism or theFortuyn revolt.[15]
Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn was born on 19 February 1948 inDriehuis within the Dutch municipality ofVelsen, as the third child to a middle class Catholic family. His father was a sales representative for a envelopes and paper company and was involved in local Catholic associations while his mother was a housewife. Fortuyn was raised primarily by his mother as his father was often away for his work.[16] He first attended a Catholic primary school, where Fortuyn later described his time as "terrible," before graduating from the Mendelcollege secondary school inHaarlem where he was described as an academically gifted pupil.[17]
As a youth, Fortuyn initially wanted to train as a priest, but in 1967 he began to study sociology at theUniversity of Amsterdam and also attended lectures in history, economics and law. He then transferred after a few months to theVrije Universiteit in Amsterdam where he continued his degree in sociology and took joint honours classes in public administration. In 1971 he ended his study with theAcademic degreeDoctorandus. In 1981 he received a doctorate in sociology at theUniversity of Groningen as a Doctor of Philosophy.[18]
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Fortuyn worked as a lecturer at theNyenrode Business Universiteit and as an associate professor at theUniversity of Groningen, where he taughtMarxist sociology. He was also an employee of the Groningen University Newspaper for which he wrote columns. He was a Marxist at the time and sympathized with theCommunist Party of the Netherlands (CPN), although he never became a full member.[19] Later, he joined theLabour Party. In 1989 Fortuyn became director of agovernment organisation administering student transport cards and worked as a research assistant and advisor to theSocial and Economic Council (SER). In 1990 he moved toRotterdam. From 1991 to 1995, he was an extraordinary professor at theErasmus University Rotterdam, appointed to the Albeda-chair in "employment conditions in public service" and ran an education consultancy business.
When his teaching contract in Rotterdam ended, Fortuyn made a career of public speaking, writing books and press columns, and worked as a weekly columnist forElsevier. He gradually involved himself in politics through regularly appearing on televised debate shows and became a familiar public figure for his charismatic and flamboyant speaking style. In 1994 he began hosting his own radio program onRTV Rijnmond and often appeared on the political debate showBuitenhof and later as a commentator on the business current affairs programBusiness Class onRTL Nederland.[20][21] Fortuyn was openly gay, and said in a 2002 interview that he was Catholic.[22]
Fortuyn began his political career on the left and was initially a Marxist due to an aversion to the Dutch political establishment which he described as dominated bypillarization and a "regent mentality." He was sympathetic to the Dutch Communist Party but chose not to become a member due to personal disagreements with the party leadership and self-identified as a Marxist without becoming active in any communist organisations. In the 1970s he joined theLabour Party and became asocial democrat. In 1986, his views shifted towardsneoliberalism in the hope that thefree market would lead to further individual emancipation, ending a perceived oppression by statebureaucracy. In 1991, he proposed firing half of all civil servants and promotedprivatisation anddecentralisation.[23] In 1992, Fortuyn wroteAan het volk van Nederland ("To the people of the Netherlands"), in which he declared himself to be the spiritual successor of the charismatic but controversial 18th-century Dutchpatriot politicianJoan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol. The book urges the already culturally emancipated citizen to use the free market to also liberate himself economically, from thewelfare state.[24] In 1989, Fortuyn left the Labour Party and during the 1990s became a member of the centre-rightVVD and was briefly a political consultant to theChristian Democratic Appeal in the early 2000s.[25]
Though on economic matters Fortuyn would largely remain a neoliberal,[26] culturally he soon became strongly influenced by theneoconservative political philosopher and chief editor of the weeklyElsevierHendrik Jan Schoo who made him a columnist in 1993.[27] Schoo deplored that a progressivenew class would have promoted multiculturalism, founding an anti-racistcivil religion on article 1 of the Dutch constitution, forbidding discrimination.[28] Whereas in the early 1990s Fortuyn had held liberal views on immigration, this changed under the influence of Schoo.[29]
Dutch neocons understood that in the evermoresecularising Netherlands a change on the lines of theReagan Revolution had become highly improbable. Women's rights, gay rights, abortion and euthanasia had been generally accepted. In his 1995 bookDe verweesde samenleving ("The orphaned society"), Fortuyn claimed that the progressive movement of the 1960s had eroded traditional norms and values. Both the roles of the "symbolic father" and the "caring mother" had been lost, leaving an orphaned population without guidance, to live out a meaningless decadent existence.[30] However, Fortuyn did not propose a return to old socially conservative or Dutch Calvinist and iconoclastic values and argued that the media, schools and artists should provide a moral leadership, explicitly promoting and defending the new values of modern Western society, constantly recreating the Dutch identity.[31] Fortuyn consistently retained a liberal stance on matters such as LGBT rights throughout his political career.
Adopting the philosophical analysis byCarl Schmitt, it was assumed that such an identity could only be defined inantithesis to some actually existing concrete enemy. Inspired bySamuel Huntington'sThe Clash of Civilizations, Dutch ethnicity was to be re-invented by identifying that enemy as Islam.[32] In his 1997 bookTegen de islamisering van onze cultuur ("Against the islamisation of our culture"), Fortuyn proposed that after thefall of communism a new adversary would be found in Muslim culture.[33] Fortuyn explained the global fundamentalist wave of the 1990s as a backlash against the insecurities caused byglobalisation. The Dutch should counterIslamic fundamentalism by promoting and defending their ownfundament, Dutch culture, especiallymodernism and theEnlightenment values.[34] These should not yet be imposed on the Dutch population as a whole, with the exception of immigrants.[35] Whereas American neoconservatives promotedhard power policies in relation to the Muslim world, Dutch neocons favoured asoft power approach.[36] Shortly before theSeptember 11 attacks, Fortuyn called for aCold War against Islam, meaning a non-military defensive enmity.[37] The attacks and thewar on terror made Islam a main issue in Dutch politics for the first time.
Fortuyn announced his intention to run for parliament in a television interview withEenVandaag in 2001, although he did not specify which party he would seek to stand as a candidate with. Although he was already in contact with the newly formedLivable Netherlands (LN) party, he also considered running for theChristian Democratic Appeal which he had worked as a consultant for, or even creating his ownlist. Livable Netherlands founderJan Nagel subsequently invited him to run as party leader and Fortuyn was elected "lijsttrekker" (lead candidate) by a large majority of party members at the LN conference on 26 November 2001, prior to theDutch general election of 2002. In his leadership bid and general election campaign, Fortuyn attacked the mainstream parties on multiculturalism, immigration and law & order. He also called for less government interference and for a reform of the Dutch public health and education systems. Fortuyn concluded his speech by stating "at your service" in English which he later adopted as his campaign slogan during the general election.[38][39] Support for LN rose dramatically during Fortuyn's brief leadership, climbing from 2% in opinion polls to about 17%.[40]
On 9 February 2002, Fortuyn gave an interview toVolkskrant, a Dutch newspaper (see below) regarding his beliefs on immigration and Islam. His statements were considered so controversial that the LN summoned him to an emergency meeting and then dismissed him aslijsttrekker the next day after Fortuyn refused to retract his statements. Against the advice of his campaign team, Fortuyn said in the interview that he favoured closing borders to Muslim immigrants and if possible he would abolish the "peculiar article" of the Dutch constitution forbidding discrimination (at the time it was generally assumed that he referred to Article 1, theequality before the law; it has been argued, however, that Fortuyn and the interviewer had confused this with Article 137 of the Penal Code, incitement to hatred).[41]
Having been rejected by Livable Netherlands, Fortuyn founded his own partyPim Fortuyn List (LPF) on 14 February 2002,[42][43] taking many former LN members and supporters with him. Heading the list of theLivable Rotterdam party, considered to be the local counterpart of the LPF, he achieved a major victory in theRotterdam municipal council elections in early March 2002 where Fortuyn was elected to Rotterdam's municipal council. The new party won about 36% of the seats, making it the largest party in the council. For the first time since theSecond World War, theLabour Party was out of power inRotterdam.
Fortuyn's victory made him the subject of hundreds of interviews during the next three months, and he made manystatements about hispolitical ideology. In March he released his bookThe Mess of Eight Purple Years (De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars), which criticised the current political system in the Netherlands and was used as hispolitical agenda for the upcominggeneral election. Purple is the colour to indicate a coalition government consisting of left parties (red) and conservative-liberal parties (blue). The Netherlands had been governed by such a coalition for eight years at that time.
On 14 March 2002, Fortuyn waspied by a left-wing activist from theBiotic Baking Brigade in The Hague. The incident sparked a debate about Fortuyn's security. Fortuyn also received anonymous letters and phone calls containing death threats during the election campaign. As a result, Fortuyn began to express a fear of being injured or assassinated and accused members of the Dutch political establishment of encouraging violence against him. He described Dutch society as tolerant in appearance, not in reality.[44]
On 6 May 2002, at age 54, Fortuyn wasassassinated by gunshot inHilversum,North Holland, byVolkert van der Graaf. The attack took place in a car park outside a radio studio where Fortuyn had just given an interview. This was nine days before thegeneral election, in which he was running. The attacker was pursued byHans Smolders, Fortuyn's driver, and was arrested by the police shortly afterward, still in possession of a handgun.[45] Months later, Van der Graaf confessed in court to the first notable political assassination in the Netherlands since 1672 (excludingWorld War II).[46] On 15 April 2003, he was convicted of assassinating Fortuyn and sentenced to 18 years in prison.[47] He was released on parole in May 2014 after serving two-thirds of his sentence, the standard procedure under the Dutch penal system.[48]
The assassination shocked many residents of the Netherlands and highlighted the cultural clashes within the country. Various conspiracy theories arose after Pim Fortuyn's murder and deeply affected Dutch politics and society.[49] 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. TheLPF made an unprecedented debut in theHouse of Representatives by winning 26 seats (17% of the 150 seats in the house). The LPF joined a cabinet with theChristian Democratic Appeal and thePeople's Party for Freedom and Democracy, but conflicts in the rudderless LPF quickly collapsed the cabinet, forcing new elections. By the following year, the party had lost support, winning only eight seats in the2003 elections. It won no seats in the2006 elections, by which time theParty for Freedom, led byGeert Wilders, had emerged as a successor.
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, aparish priest fromThe Hague, accompanying him in some of his last TV appearances. According toThe New York Times, Berger had become his "friend andconfessor" during the last weeks of his life.[50]
Fortuyn was initially buried inDriehuis in the Netherlands. He was re-interred on 20 July 2002, atSan Giorgio della Richinvelda, in theprovince of Pordenone in Italy, where he had owned a house.
Fortuyn was critical of Islamic culture and argued that gradualIslamization was occurring in Dutch society as a consequence of immigration and multicultural policies in the Netherlands. When asked about his opposition to Muslim immigration, Fortuyn explained that, "I have no desire to go through the emancipation of women and homosexuals all over again."[51] In August 2001, Fortuyn was quoted in theRotterdams Dagblad newspaper saying, "I am also in favour of acold war with Islam. I see Islam as an extraordinary threat, as a hostile religion."[52] In the TV programBusiness Class, Fortuyn said that Muslims in the Netherlands did not accept Dutch society; he believed that the religion of Islam was fundamentally intolerant and incompatible with Western values.[53] He said that Muslims in the Netherlands needed to accept livingtogether 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, butit takes two to tango." Fortuyn also strongly maintained that he did not object to Muslim immigrants because of their race or ethnicity, and was not against a multiracial society, but opposed what he saw as lack of integration and unwillingness to adapt to Dutch standards of modernity andsocial liberalism within Muslim communities.[38]
On 9 February 2002, additional statements made by him were carried in an interview withVolkskrant during his leadership of theLivable Netherlands party. Fortuyn argued that Islamic culture would deem him "less than a pig" for being a Christian and a homosexual.[2] 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. The actual number for 2001 was 27,000, down slightly on the previous year. Fortuyn also argued that he would not allow any more Muslim immigrants into the Netherlands if it were legally possible.[54] 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, saying that he did not intend to "unload our Moroccan hooligans" onto the MoroccanKing Hassan.[55][56] Hassan had died three years earlier.[57] He considered Article 7 of the constitution, which assertsfreedom 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 also distanced himself fromHans Janmaat of theCentrum Democraten, who in the 1980s wanted to remove all foreigners from the country and was repeatedly convicted for discrimination andhate speech.
Fortuyn proposed that all people who already resided in the Netherlands would be allowed to stay, provided the immigrants adopted the Dutch society's consensus on human rights as their own.[55] He stated: "not integrating means leaving" and "the borders have to be hermetically closed".[58] 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.
When asked by the Dutch newspaperVolkskrant whether he hated Islam, he replied:
I don't hate Islam. I consider it a backward culture. I have travelled much in the world. And wherever Islam rules, it's just terrible. All the hypocrisy. It's a bit like those oldReformed Protestants. The Reformed lie all the time. And why is that? Because they have standards and values that are so high that you can't humanly maintain them. You also see that in that Muslim culture. Then look at the Netherlands. In what country could an electoral leader of such a large movement as mine be openly homosexual? How wonderful that that's possible. That's something that one can be proud of. And I'd like to keep it that way, thank you very much.[a]
Fortuyn used the wordachterlijk, 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".[53]
Fortuyn wroteAgainst the Islamization of Our Culture (1997) (inDutch).[59]
During its brief time in government, Fortuyn's party the LPF attempted to introduce a new proposal on immigration under LPF ministerHilbrand Nawijn called theOne-Off Regulation 2003 which would grant a general pardon to asylum seekers who had been in the Netherlands for more than five years combined with a temporary freeze on migration and new restrictions on further immigration.[55]
The ideology or political style that is derived from Pim Fortuyn, and in turn the LPF, is often calledFortuynism. Observers variously saw him as a political protest targeting the allegedelitism and bureaucratic style of the Dutchpurple coalitions or as offering an appealing political style. The style was characterized variously as one "of openness, directness and clearness",populism or simply as charisma. Another school holds Fortuynism as a distinct ideology, with an alternative vision of society. Some argued that Fortuynism was not justone ideology, but contained liberalism, populism andnationalism.[60]
During the 2002 campaign, Fortuyn was accused by some of being on the "extreme right", although others saw only certain similarities.[61] While he employed anti-immigration rhetoric, he considered himself neither a radicalnationalist nor a defender of traditional authoritarian values. Fortuyn stated that he did not view himself as a far-right politician, nor as a libertarian populist, and disputed these labels when they were employed by the press to describe him. On the contrary, Fortuyn claimed he wanted to protect the socio-culturally liberal values of the Netherlands, women's rights and sexual minorities (he was openly gay himself), from the "backward" Islamic culture.[62] He held liberal views favouring thedrug policy of the Netherlands,same-sex marriage,euthanasia, and related positions. Fortuyn was also a member of theRepublican Society, and favoured a system with an elected president, elected mayors and police commissioners. He also expressed support for the state ofIsrael throughout his political career.
The LPF also won support from some ethnic minorities; one of Fortuyn's closest associates was of Cape Verdean origin, and one of the party's MPs was a young woman of Turkish descent.
His ideology comprised the following positions:[63]
Fortuyn was compared with the politiciansJörg Haider andJean-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 byAd Melkert, thenlijsttrekker of theLabour Party, who said inEmmen on 24 April 2002: "If you flirt with Fortuyn, then in the Netherlands the same thing will happen as happened in France. There they woke up with Le Pen, soon we will wake up with Fortuyn."[64]
On 5 May, the day before the assassination, Fortuyn in a debate with Melkert organized by theAlgemeen Dagblad newspaper claimed that he wasdemonized. In it he said that he often had to tell journalists that the image created of him in the media was incorrect.[65]
ColumnistJan Blokker wrote that "[a]fter reading [...] I realized once again that Professor Pim may really be called the Jean-Marie Le Pen, the Filip Dewinter, the Jörg Haider and the newHans Janmaat of the Netherlands."[66] Prime MinisterWim Kok accused Fortuyn of stirring up fear and stimulating xenophobia among the Dutch people.[67] In the run-up to the 2002 election,GroenLinks leaderPaul Rosenmöller claimed Fortuyn's policies were "not justright butextreme right".[68]
Fortuyn often responded to criticism by maintaining that his views were misunderstood or distorted by the media, and in turn rejected comparisons and expressed personal distaste for radical far-right politicians in other European countries. He explicitly distanced himself from Jean-Marie Le Pen and criticised some of his policies, including Le Pen's downplaying of the Holocaust. During an interview withBBC News journalistKirsty Lang, Fortuyn stated that his opposition to Muslim immigration was mistakenly demonized as racism by journalists and his opponents, and instead argued that it was based on his desire to preserve Dutch tolerance towards sexual minorities and women and to prevent cultural clashes within Western society.[69] In domestic politics, Fortuyn also distanced his views from hard-right Dutch politicians such asHans Janmaat andJoop Glimmerveen (who called for the mass expulsion of foreigners from the Netherlands) by maintaining that if he came to power, he would pardon existing illegal immigrants if they had lived in the Netherlands for over five years and offer them a path to citizenship if they could be assimilated into society.
In an interview on the Dutch talk showJensen! that was broadcast shortly before his death, Fortuyn accused members of the Dutch government and political establishment of putting his life in danger through repeatedly demonizing him and his beliefs.[70]
Fortuyn changed the Dutch political landscape.[71] The 2002 elections, only weeks after Fortuyn's death, were marked by large losses for the liberalPeople's Party for Freedom and Democracy and especially thesocial democraticLabour Party (whose parliamentary group was halved in size); both parties replaced their leaders shortly after their losses. The election winners were thePim Fortuyn List, and theChristian democraticChristian Democratic Appeal (CDA) whose leaderJan Peter Balkenende went on to become prime minister. Some commentators in the mainstream political class speculated that Fortuyn's perceived martyrdom created greater support for the LPF, hence that party's brief surge to 17% of the electoral vote and 26 of the 150 seats in the Dutch Parliament. Others opined that voters who would have otherwise supported the LPF had Fortuyn not been murdered voted for the CDA as Balkenende had not joined in with other party leaders in attacking Fortuyn. Balkenende later claimed to have shared some of Fortuyn's opinions and pledged to implement some of his policy ideas. Although the LPF was able to form a coalition with theChristian Democratic Appeal and thePeople's Party for Freedom and Democracy, it was bereft with internal strife and quickly lost steam. Thecoalition cabinet ofJan Peter Balkenende fell within three months, due to infighting within the LPF. In the following elections, the LPF was left with only eight seats in parliament (out of 150) and was not included in the new government. Many of the LPF's successive leaders were not regarded as charismatic as Fortuyn and as the next cabinet under Balkenende continued many of the former coalition's policies, it became harder for the LPF to present an alternative image to the government. However, political commentators speculated that discontented voters might vote for a non-traditional party, if a viable alternative was at hand. Later, the right-wingParty for Freedom led byGeert Wilders, which has a strong stance on immigration and cultural integration, proposing to deport criminal, unemployed or not assimilated non-western immigrants, won nine (out of 150) seats in the 2006 elections and became the largest party in the2023 elections, reaching 37 seats.
The Netherlands has made its asylum policy more strict. Opponents ofFortuynism, such asPaul Rosenmöller,Thom de Graaf, andAd Melkert (all labelling Fortuyn as a right-wing extremist),[67] have objected to what they think is a harsher political and social climate, especially towards immigrants and Muslims.[72]
However, other commentators such asAyaan Hirsi Ali,David Starkey andDouglas Murray have retrospectively defended some of Fortuyn's beliefs.[73][74][75] Former Dutch Prime MinisterJan Peter Balkenende also stated that he later agreed with some of Fortuyn's criticisms of multiculturalism and the purple coalition underWim Kok.[76][77]
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 theirmulticultural society, and whether they need to betterassimilate newcomers. The government's decision in 2004 to more strictly expel asylum seekers whose applications had failed was controversial. Fortuyn had advocated for a one-time amnesty for those asylum seekers who had resided in the Netherlands for an extended period.[78]
In 2004, in a TV show, Fortuyn was chosen asDe Grootste Nederlander ("Greatest Dutchman of all-time"), followed closely byWilliam of Orange, the leader of the independence war that established the precursor to the present-day Netherlands.[79] 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.[80]
Right-wing politicians gained greater public influence after Fortuyn's death, such as formerMinister for Integration & ImmigrationRita Verdonk, the prominentcritic of Islam,Member of the House of RepresentativesGeert Wilders who in 2006 formed theParty for Freedom (which became the largest party in the House of Representatives in2023). These politicians often focus on the debate overcultural assimilation andintegration.
Between 2003 and 2004, Fortuyn's family donated the condolence letters, cards, objects and register books that were placed at various locations associated with Fortuyn such as his home, Rotterdam city hall, theHomomonument in Amsterdam,Media Park in Hilversum and the House of Representatives to theMeertens Institute. They are currently housed in the Institute's archive and can be consulted for research.[81]
Supporters of Fortuyn went on to set up the annualPim Fortuyn Prize which is awarded to opinion makers, politicians or commentators who best convey the ideas of Pim Fortuyn. Winners have includedEbru Umar,John van den Heuvel and Belgian Prime MinisterBart De Wever.[82]
In 2012, exactly ten years after Fortuyn's murder, a section of the Korte Hoogstraat (city centre) of Rotterdam was renamedPim Fortuynplaats. Around a thousand people attended the ceremony.[83]
In 2023, a meeting room was named after Fortuyn in the temporary House of Representatives which contains a memorial window.[84]
To mark the 22nd anniversary of his death in May 2024, acrowdfunding campaign was started with the approval of Fortuyn's family with the aim of having a number of Fortuyn's books narrated with an AI -generated voice of Fortuyn.[85]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Dr Janet Parker 20 June 2005, New Criminologist.Pim Fortuyn doet mee aan de verkiezingen voor de tweede kamer onder de naam Lijst Pim Fortuyn. Hij heeft zijn partij gisteren ingeschreven bij de Kamer van Koophandel in Rotterdam
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| New creation | Leader of Livable Netherlands 2001–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Leader of the Pim Fortuyn List 2002 | Succeeded by | |
| Chairman of the Pim Fortuyn List 2002 | Succeeded by Peter Langendam | |
| International | |
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| National | |
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