Gunned Down

Tuesday, May 7, 2002
The campaigning has stopped but the elections will go on. Saying democracy can't be bent by terror, Prime Minister Wim Kok announced the cabinet's decision earlier Tuesday to hold elections, as scheduled, on May 15. "One thing is certain," said the Prime Minister. "Democracy and the memory of Mr. Fortuyn are best served by allowing democracy to take its full course. "

Prime Minister Kok said the Cabinet listened to other party leaders, especially those of Pim Fortuyn List, the party of the slain politician, before reaching its decision. Mat Herben, Fortuyn's party spokesman, said earlier in the day that his former democracy-loving leader would have wanted it this way. "Pim was a man who abhorred violence," he said. "We stress that you can only honor Pim by going to vote. He was a democrat and the only thing that matters in a democracy is the ballot box."

Kok had called the meeting earlier in the day with Fortuyn's people to hear what they had to say. He described the meeting as "sincere, serious, precise, listening to each other. And that's the best message we possibly can give."

Prime Minister Kok seemed to be invoking the long Dutch tradition of consensus and tolerance, a self-image that's being sorely tested by Monday's events. He also appealed for calm, this following a night of unrest in The Hague by supporters of the far-right politician that resulted in 20 arrests and two car burnings.

The maverick Dutch politician was shot dead Monday evening after leaving a radio studio in the town of Hilversum. He had received death threats before, and during his last interview, he spoke about them. But he said he would live until he was 87. Minutes later, he was dead at age 54, after taking at least five bullets to the head, back, and neck. People gathered in Hilversum, The Hague, and Rotterdam to place flowers and cards for the slain leader.

Pim Fortuyn entered the political arena just six months ago, but he's changed its landscape with his outspoken and temperamental style in a country where the terms of debate rarely reach the extremes. Flamboyant, wealthy, and openly gay, Pim Fortuyn campaigned on issues such as health, education, and crime. But his main platform was anti-immigration: he called for closing the Dutch doors to any more foreigners. "The Netherlands is full," he was fond of saying. He also called Islam a "backward culture."

Yet the message — and its messenger — caught on and the popularity of this onetime professor was growing. Pim Fortuyn List won the majority of seats in local elections in his home city of Rotterdam, despite the city's high immigrant population. And the party was also slated to do well in next week's general elections, where it was thought to be crucial to the formation of the next coalition government. Some people here fear — or hope — it will still make a strong showing, especially with a high sympathy vote for Fortuyn. But others say without him, there's little else to the party, whose members are widely acknowledged to have little political experience.

This is the first political assassination in Dutch modern memory, and it's left The Netherlands reeling from shock and horror — sentiments apparent on every street corner. "It's very tragic. It's the first time it's so close in our own home," says Remco Vendiursin. "I was too young, but we heard about the Kennedys and we know in our history it's happened. But in the last centuries, it hasn't. So it's very, very strange and shocking."

"It's terrible, it's horrible," added Carine Vink. "I didn't really like the person Fortuyn, but this is inhuman, not normal." And Remco Koox, a supporter of the party on the other end of the political spectrum from Fortuyn's, the Green Left, said no matter what you believe, everyone in the Netherlands is "sick to their stomach" today. Like so many others here, he says there are "no words" to describe what's happened.

Police have arrested a suspect in the murder — a 32-year-old white man of Dutch nationality. Public prosecutors say a search of the man's home found material concerning environmental activism, but made no link between that and the crime. They did, however, find ammunition that matched the caliber of the casings found near Fortuyn's body. The suspect — whose name is being withheld and who has refused to prosecutors' request for a statement — will make his first court appearance Wednesday in Amsterdam.