A Political and Economic Dictionary of Western Europe, First Edition
Pim Fortuyn was a controversial, openly gay Dutch politician with strong anti-immigration and anti-Islamic views. He favoured closing the Dutch borders to new immigrants and believed that Muslim immigration damaged Dutch society’s otherwise liberal views on homosexuality and gender equality. Fortuyn had a broad appeal among the young, the far right and those disillusioned with the centre-left government.
Fortuyn was assassinated on 6 May 2002, nine days before the Dutch national elections to the Tweede Kamer in which his newly founded party, List Pim Fortuyn, had been expected to perform well. Following his murder the List Pim Fortuyn party went on to win 26 of the 150 seats in the Tweede Kamer and governed in the first coalition government formed under Jan Peter Balkende.
Fortuyn entered politics on 26 November 2001 and was elected head of list of the radical new party Leefbaar Nederland (Liveable Netherlands) which had been formed to contest the elections of May 2002. He was dismissed on 9 February 2002, one day after he suggested publicly that Article One of the Dutch Constitution, which bans discrimination, should be changed to favour freedom of speech instead.
He founded the List Pim Fortuyn party on 11 February 2002 and contested local elections in Rotterdam in March. In that city, governed by the Labour Party for more than 50 years, Fortuyn won 17 of the city council’s 45 seats with 35% of the vote.
Born Wilhelmus Simon Petrus (Pim) Fortuyn on 19 February 1948 in Velsen, he studied sociology at the Free University of Amsterdam. He obtained a Ph.D. from Groningen University for his thesis on social and economic development in the Netherlands in 1945–49. He lectured on Marxist sociology at Groningen University and was a part-time professor in social sciences at Erasmus University in 1991–95.
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