Dutch populist politician Pim Fortuyn with his dogs. The small dogs were seen in church during Pim's funeral
Sixteen years ago Dutch populist politician Pim Fortuyn was gunned down by a radical leftist, only minutes after he had given a radio interview at Hilversum media center.
Many questions surrounding his assassination remain, however. Hated by the Left, but loved by many who still had their heads screwed on, he was a leader who represented the thoughts and feelings of Dutch nationals who could see where the country was headed. He warned about the encroaching totalitarianism of political correctness, so-called 'anti-racism', the destructive effects of mass immigration, problems in healthcare, education and so on.
In a
prescient statement broadcast about 6 weeks before he was assassinated, Fortuyn spoke of the dangerous climate the Dutch establishment had created.
"The Dutch government, and I think it is a bloody shame, helps to create a climate of demonization of me as a person. And if something happens to me, then they will be partly responsible, and then they can't renounce it, in the sense that I haven't committed that attack. You have partly created that climate. It has to end."
On the evening of 6 May 2002, within hours of the assassination, riots broke out near the seat of parliament in The Hague. People were clearly heard
chanting 'murderers' at the government, because they knew full well who was responsible for Fortuyn's murder. In order to deflect culpability, the Dutch elite very quickly shifted the blame to Fortuyn's followers by accusing them of racism. On that very night, the authorities organized a press conference where the people were told that the assassin had been apprehended (within minutes apparently) and that he was white rather than the expected immigrant (as if there were no white radical leftists). Political party leaders subsequently got the security detail that was denied to Pim Fortuyn. The same 'leaders' who had persecuted him relentlessly, were now whining about their own safety.
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