16 - 22 May 2002
Issue No.586
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 16 - 22 May 2002 Issue No.586 |
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Great white hope
The Netherlands lost the rising star of its far-right wing when an animal rights activist assassinated populist politician Pim Fortuyn, reports Judit Neurink from Amsterdam
"They killed our white leader," lamented a man making the pilgrimage to the grave of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, killed by a lone gunman last week. The mourner was one of the hundreds of thousands of Dutch men, women and children who took to the streets to protest the assassination of the far-right wing populist Fortuyn who had been expected to get around 15 percent of the vote at this week's Dutch parliamentary elections.
Fortuyn, 54, was a gay academic and former Marxist who, despite only having been running for parliament for about eight months prior to his assassination, had already won a third of the votes in his hometown, Rotterdam's, local elections, earlier this year.
The Dutch media compared the mass hysteria that followed Fortuyn's assassination to the scenes that greeted news of the death of Britain's Princess Diana in 1997. Memorials to Fortuyn sprang up in spots loaded with significance: the street in front of his stately home in Rotterdam was filled with flowers and farewell notes as was the entrance to the broadcasting centre in Hilversum, outside Holland's capital Amsterdam, where Fortuyn was shot as he was leaving a radio studio. Finally, several thousand people signed the condolence register and the pavement outside Rotterdam's town hall.
Protest marches were organised in some Dutch towns and Fortuyn's white coffin at Rotterdam Cathedral and his grave in his birthplace Velzen were visited by tens of thousands of grieving fans. "He said what we feel and was murdered for it," and "He was our white hope in dark days," were the main messages on the notes, placards and posters that the crowds displayed. Left-wing politicians and the media were blamed for "demonising" Fortuyn while Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok and Social Democratic leader Ad Melkert were accused of murder. Fortuyn had been compared in the media to Nazi bigwigs like Himmler and the Italian Fascist leader Mussolini. One liberal politician even warned that the Netherlands would make itself a laughing stock with Fortuyn as prime minister -- the job Fortuyn himself had vowed he would secure.
A man holds a rose and a poster in his hands as mourners line up to pay their last respects to the assassinated Dutch right-wing politician Pim Fortuyn whose body lies in state in the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Rotterdam, the Netherlands (photo:AP)
Fortuyn had hotly denied any association with extreme right-wing politicians such as France's Jean-Marie Le Pen and the Belgian Filip de Winter, but his rhetoric and the anti-immigration, anti-Muslim and tough-on-crime ticket of his campaign had attracted many Dutch who feel unhappy about the immigration policies of the past two social-liberal so-called "purple" governments of the densely populated western European country, where some 10 per cent of the population are non-white. In some of the larger towns, as many as half of the pupils at primary schools are of foreign descent, resulting in "black" and "white" schools and districts, a social problem previous governments have not been able to solve as Fortuyn promised he would.
The 32 year old murder suspect is an animal rights activist, opposed to factory farming -- although environmental issues were not high on Fortuyn's agenda. It appears he worked alone, although as yet he has refused to give any statement. After the attack Dutch police arranged special security for the main players in Fortuyn's party, List Pim Fortuyn (LPF), and the leaders of the other national parties, an unusual measure in a presumably open and easygoing country where some ministers cycle to work.
With general elections scheduled for Wednesday, Dutch political parties decided to halt their election campaigns. From left to right Fortuyn's assassination was branded "an attack on democracy," and politicians expressed their horror at his killing -- the first political murder in the Netherlands for centuries. There was a call for delaying the elections, but after consulting with the top of Fortuyn's party, the cabinet decided not to change the election date. "This is an important signal that democracy functions and continues to function,'' Dutch Prime Minister Kok explained. "It puts a heavy burden on our citizens to give a balanced judgment but our citizens can handle it.''
"Pim was a man who abhorred violence," said LPF spokesman and parliamentary candidate Mat Herben. The voters "can only honour Pim by going to vote. He was a democrat and the only thing that matters in a democracy is the ballot box," he added. The party, which is expected to win quite a few sympathy votes, decided to wait until after the elections before choosing a new leader. But it is hard to tell how many people will end up voting for the LPF. Some analysts predict that people who have not voted for years and would have voted for Fortuyn, will now stay at home. In addition, the long-term prospects for the LPF are far from clear in the absence of the charismatic Fortuyn. Only a few days before the elections, signs of a fierce struggle for the leadership of the party emerged, with many analysts saying it will be very hard to form a stable cabinet, whether with or without the LPF.
Many people fear that Fortuyn's assassination has strengthened xenophobic feelings in the Netherlands and convinced politicians to adopt an even tougher stand on immigration. Fortuyn's speedy rise and the emotional reactions to his assassination have convinced most Dutch politicians that they have fallen dangerously out of touch with their peoples' true concerns.
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