Fortuyn Shot Dead, Disaster for Netherlands

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (CNN) --Maverick Dutch right-wing politician Pim Fortuyn has been shot dead, police have told CNN.

Fortuyn, 54, was shot in the head at least three times at close range as he was going to a Dutch national radio station in Hilversum, the Associated Press reported.

Opinion polls had shown that Fortuyn and his party, running on an anti-immigration platform, were scheduled to win a large block in the country's parliament in May 15 elections.

A man who was believed to have been carrying a gun is reported to have been arrested outside the Media Park in Hilversum, 20 kilometres (12 miles) southeast of Amsterdam.

Journalist Sander Van Hoorn told CNN: "Fortuyn was shot in the head, just behind his left ear, and in his neck and chest.

"Police have been searching for a single gunman, who was wearing a baseball cap. A police helicopter joined the search.

"People witnessed the gunman open fire and four people are reported to have chased after him."

Fortuyn's rise mirrors a right-wing resurgence in several European countries, lately highlighted by the far right-winger 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.

CNN's European political editor Robin Oakley said: "Fortuyn was part of a new wave of Dutch politicians. He ran on an anti-immigration platform, but insisted he was not like Le Pen.

"He said he wanted nothing to do with Le Pen, but said the Netherlands was 'full up' with 16 million people. Although he said he did not want to deport immigrants, he was critical of Muslims for not joining in Dutch life, and wanted to restrict benefits to people who can speak Dutch.

"His party Leefbaar Nederland won over 30 % of votes in Rotterdam elections and it could have been the third or fourth biggest party in general elections next month.

"If the right toppled the socialists, Fortuyn could have become part of the coalition government."

Oakley said that Fortuyn was a former Marxist and sociology professor and newspaper columnist and was 'out of the staid style of Dutch politics. He was homosexual and drove around in a car with blacked out windows'.

Fortuyn's platform seemed out of place in the Netherlands, which has a reputation for liberalism.

It was the first country to legalise gay marriages, regulate prostitution, approve and control euthanasia, and tolerate the over-the-counter sale of marijuana in hundreds of "coffee shops."

Though tolerant of such subcultures, Fortuyn's popularity has exposed a deep vein of suspicion of immigrants in Europe's most densely populated country, about two million of whose 16 million people are not native Dutch. About 800,000 are Muslims.

He was founder of Leefbaar Nederland, which stunned the Netherlands in March when it won 35 percent of the vote for city council seats in Rotterdam, the second-largest city, The Associated Press reports.

Fortuyn advocates a ban on immigration and has criticised Islam as a "backward culture."

Although he no longer leads the party, polls project that it could win 24 seats in the 150-member parliament in May 15 national elections.

Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/05/06/fortuyn.shooting/index.html

Maverick Dutch anti-immigration politician Pim
Fortuyn, shown in this November, 2001 file photo,
was shot dead Monday, nine days before a general
election in which he was expected to make big gains.
There was no claim of responsibility for the shooting
which took place at 6 p.m. outside a big media complex
in Hilversum, 12 miles southeast of Amsterdam.
REUTERS/Leo Vogelzang

Absolutely correct. The U.S. will meet a similar fate by becoming LATINIZED by Mexico and the rest of Central and South America.

News Flash: Hispanic people are a) Christian in religion and culture and b) by and large ethnically a Caucasian-American Indian mix. In other words, they're every bit as "white" as the average American is, and most of them that I've met are easily just as Christian, too -- in many cases, more so.

Now, if you're afraid that the WASP, Puritan, New England-dominted elite is on the way out -- you're right. They aborted and contracepted themselves right out of the running. The future of America belongs to the BEACH -- the Brown Euro-American Catholic Hispanic -- and that's just fine by me. At least they like kids.

California is going down the tubes because of its leftist politics and masses of unassimilated peasants. If you want to see what the future of America looks like, look at Texas; we have our problems here, but most of us work hard and get along fairly well no matter our skin color. Why? Because most Texans share the same cultural values: we work hard, play hard, respect innocent life, and believe in harsh justice when called for. The combination of Mediterranean/Latin joie de vivre and Anglo-Celtic-Germanic thrift and industry that exemplifies Texan culture is the reason why so many people love this humid, hot, heavenly state, and why we -- God willing -- will succeed where SoCal has failed.

B-chan (a Scottish/German Texan)

Unlike Europe, we are a Republic founded on an Ideal..not a historic boundry or race.

That's a lie, of course, but a very useful lie which has gotten a lot of play over the past 20 years. But it simply is not true, as anyone who knows any real history could tell you (as opposed to the ideology mascarading as history which causes people to believe the lie that "we" are an "ideology" and not a nation). No true American 18th, 19th, or early 20th century American would have ever fallen for so preposterous a lie.

The reason I used the word republic instead of nation, is just that the US is a republic of independant nations..each state being it's own nation. (At least we were before FDR, activist Supreme Courts, 14th Amendment ect). Now, with that said, If you want to treat the entire US as a single Nation, fine, than we are a nation based on an ideology, not a race or history boundry. This is different from any other nationalism.

I'm not sure what you are considering a lie, but I assuming you don't know squat about history either.

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