Pim Fortuyn: A Contradictory Leader?

It was an incident that is entirely against the principles of democracy and civil society. It was the assassination of the leader of a political party in a country that has many political parties representing all levels of the political spectrum. It happened in a country that prides itself on its long traditions of respect and tolerance, and it happened only a week and a half before a national general election.

The event in reference is the 5 May 2002 assassination of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn. The assassin was a member of a radical and decisively left-of-center environmentalist group, and the target was the leader of a decisively right-of-center political party.

In considering Mr. Fortuyn the politician, one may find a very different set of conclusions than those that emerge in considering Mr. Fortuyn the individual. Were these contrasts an alternative version of political hypocrisy, the "anything for a vote" scenario in action? Or were these contrasts the method by which Mr. Fortuyn hoped to make his far right political movement seem tolerant and respectable? These questions we cannot now fully answer.

Mr. Fortuyn the politician was anti-immigration, anti-Semetic, and campaigned on a rather isolationist and nationalist agenda. He railed against governmental regulations and the advent of the multi-cultural state the Netherlands has become. He was not very adept at dealing with the media. He became so enthralled by his cause that during various interviews he lost his temper with more than a few journalists. As an example of his antagonism to the multi-cultural state, Mr. Fortuyn rarely gave interviews in English to foreign press. Although most educated Dutch people speak English quite proficiently, Mr. Fortuyn had refused to learn the language during his youth and had a rather halting delivery.

Mr. Fortuyn the individual is quite a different matter. He was openly homosexual. He lived in a very multi-cultural community where native Dutch residents comprise a minority of the population. There seemed no obvious tension among Mr. Fortuyn and his "foreign" neighbors. Many of these non-Dutch neighbors have described Mr. Fortuyn as a kind and tolerant man.

So which of these was the true Pim Fortuyn? Was it the man who used his unique personality to develop and mold his party? Was it Pim Fortuyn the ultra-nationalist whose political ideals closely resembled those espoused by the Popular Front in France and its leader Jean-Marie Le Pen? Or was Pim Fortuyn just a regular Dutch guy who thought maybe if he rambled on long enough with some abstract extremist theory of government, he might get some shred of power some day because voters always like a radical populist? Perhaps Mr. Fortuyn was a mix of all these traits.

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