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After Le Pen’s Defeat, Dutch Far-right Leader Shot Dead
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Right-wing leader
Pim Fortuyn wipes his face after protesters threw cream pies laced
with urine at him in The Hague, March 14.
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AMSTERDAM,
May 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Only one day after
National Front’s Jean-Marie Le Pen lost in France’s nationwide
vote, Dutch far-right politician Pim Fortuyn was shot dead late
Monday, nine days before elections that were expected to sweep his
party into government.
Fortuyn,
an openly gay former sociology professor who was contesting the
elections for the first time, was fatally wounded by a gunman on the
steps of the Hilversum media center after taping an interview, news
agencies reported.
Six
bullets were pumped into the 54-year old politician's head, neck and
chest by the unidentified assailant, who ran off pursued by witnesses
to the killing, the British daily newspaper, The Independent,
reported. Dutch television reported late Monday, May 6, that a white
man with a weapon had been arrested at a nearby petrol station. He was
described by witnesses as young and wearing a baseball cap.
The
killing shattered the image of the Netherlands as a tolerant country
where everybody could air their political views, and threw the
election campaign into confusion, said Isobel Conway, the
Independent’s correspondent in Amsterdam. Dutch politicians closed
ranks to condemn the shooting.
Aad
Melkert, the leader of the PVDA Labor Party, who had distanced himself
from Fortuyn's extremist views, said: "It doesn't matter what the
political viewpoint might have been; our democracy is based on giving
people the freedom to differ: this is a dark moment for Holland and a
low point in our democracy.''
Wim
Kok, the outgoing Prime Minister, who interrupted campaigning to
return to The Hague, was deeply shaken by the murder. "Holland is
a tolerant country with respect for each other's opinions and you can
fight with words but never with bullets,'' he said.
Fortuyn's
party was expected to win at least 20 per cent of the vote in the 15
May elections after campaigning on a strongly anti-immigration
platform. The leader of Leefbaar Fortuyn, which began as a fledgling
group but captured significant support in recent local elections,
provoked widespread protests for saying that Dutch borders should be
closed to immigrants.
In
March, his newly formed party stunned the nation by sweeping 35 per
cent of the vote in the local elections in Rotterdam, a port city with
a large immigrant population.
Fortuyn
sprang into Dutch political life from an academic background and after
a spell as a media commentator. As his opinion poll ratings continued
to rise, showing that he would be a strong contender in the formation
of the next government, he tempered his racist rhetoric. Just days
before his murder, he called for an amnesty for immigrants who had
spent five years or longer in the country.
While
he mastered television presentation and self-promotion, he fell foul
of a number of Dutch interviewers by calling a halt when he did not
like their questions. He recently ordered John Simpson and his BBC
crew to leave his home after accusing the newsman of "failing to
show him any respect''.
Fortuyn
had recently expressed fears for his own safety. A few weeks ago,
protesters threw cream pies laced with urine in his face. He had also
received hate mail and was planning to move out of his house, his
close friend, the prominent Dutch property developer Harry Mens, told
Dutch television after the murder.
Meanwhile,
Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok is to meet fellow political leaders in
parliament Tuesday, May 7, to discuss whether to go ahead with
upcoming elections, BBC’s online news service reported.
Kok,
along with senior cabinet officials, will meet members of Fortuyn's
party to see if they wish the election to go ahead.
Electoral
campaigning by all parties has already been halted following an
emergency session of the Dutch parliament.
Monday
night, scuffles broke out between police and demonstrators in front of
the parliament building in The Hague after protesters gathered to
protest their anger over the killing of Fortuyn, BBC added.
Around
300 people were involved in the protest, in which bottles and stones
were thrown at police.
Police
said they had arrested a 33-year-old white Dutch man in relation to
the killing, but no motive has yet been established.
The
killing is likely to raise political tensions not only in the
Netherlands, but potentially in many parts of Europe, where issues of
immigration, race relations and nationalism - on which Fortuyn was
most outspoken - have come to the center of the political debate, said
BBC.
"This
is deeply tragic first of all for him and for all his loved ones. It
is also deeply tragic for our democracy," Kok said.
"In
God's name let's keep calm. At a time when you want to be very angry,
being calm is the best way," he said.
However,
the acting prime minister's calls went unheeded as Fortuyn's
supporters brandished photos of him and screamed abuse against the
political establishment.
Protesters
tore down barricades and threw them at police with dogs. Riot police
were deployed to restore order.
Politicians
across Europe and the United States joined in condemning the
assassination.
Belgian
Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said he believed something like this
was "impossible in this day and age, in the European Union, in
the 21st Century".
His
British counterpart Tony Blair warned against violently targeting
politicians, regardless of their political beliefs.
"The
United States ... condemns this senseless act of violence," said
state department spokeswoman Brenda Greenberg.
Far-right
parties have also expressed strong sentiments.
Bruno
Megret, head of France's right-wing National Republican Movement
(MNR), said: "If it was politically motivated, this criminal act
shows to what extent certain hysterical positions like those shown by
the French left over the past 15 days can incite hatred."
Rising
Far-right in Europe
Fortuyn’s
murder comes at a time when the extreme right's electoral successes
have jolted their mainstream rivals across Europe, said the
Independent.
The
late leader's sharp rise in support in the Netherlands was just the
latest sign of a wider resurgence of these parties from Copenhagen to
Vienna.
Jean-Marie
Le Pen's National Front has received most attention recently, Fortuyn
and similar figures have emerged in Italy, Austria, Germany, Belgium,
Denmark and Switzerland. Although varied, they all sought to upset the
consensus between social democrats and Christian democrats that has
dominated European politics since the war.
Capitalizing
on voter apathy and boredom with the status quo, far-right parties
offer simple solutions to complex problems such as globalization,
sovereignty in the E.U., mass migration and rising crime. A rash of
elections across Europe in the coming year will give them a chance to
entrench themselves further in those countries where proportional
representation gives minority parties huge leverage.
The
Netherlands and Ireland go to the polls this month; French
parliamentary elections begin next month, followed by elections in
Sweden and Germany in September.
In
1998, the center-left, with its "Third Way", held power in
13 E.U. countries, but now the pendulum is swinging back. Denmark,
Italy, Austria, Belgium and Portugal all now have right-wing
governments.
Jörg
Haider's Freedom Party had six cabinet posts in a coalition with
Austria's conservative party. Although Haider fell out of the
limelight, he is quietly preparing a bid for the Austrian chancellery.
In
Italy, Umberto Bossi's Northern League and Gianfranco Fini's Alleanza
Nazionale both hold senior posts in Silvio Berlusconi's cabinet. In
Switzerland, the People's Party won 23 per cent of the vote last
September.
In
Denmark, Pia Kjaersgaard's Danish People's Party almost doubled its
parliamentary seats and won 12 per cent of the vote in last November's
general election.
The
hardline Progress Party, which wants to cap immigration at 1,000
people a year, has held the balance of power in Norway since last
October.
In
Belgium, the Vlaams Blok party, which backs repatriation of
non-Europeans, won 9.9 per cent in 1999 and became the largest
political force in Antwerp in 2000.
In
Germany, the Law and Order Offensive party, which backs forcible
deportation and chemical castration for criminals, won 19 per cent of
the vote in Hamburg last September. Its leader, Ronald Schill, is the
city's interior minister.
However,
Germany has still not seen a real breakthrough for the extreme right.
Schill, known as "Judge Merciless", won only 4 per cent in
April's Saxony-Anhalt elections. Similarly, Le Pen's closest ally in
Germany, Franz Schönhuber, a former SS soldier and leader of the
Republican Party, has attracted negligible support in recent years.
Although
the National Front received less than 18 per cent of the nationwide
vote in France on Sunday, May 5, its support remains solid in the
south, east and parts of the north. In these areas, the extreme
right's vote reached 40 per cent in places.
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