Pim Fortuyn

Shot on 6 May 2002 in Hilversum by the environmental activist Volkert van der Graaf, nine days before the Dutch general election.

Overview

Pim Fortuyn, a former sociology professor and columnist, founded his own party, the Pim Fortuyn List, in 2002 and rose rapidly in the polls with criticism of immigration, Islam, and the political establishment, while being openly gay and socially liberal. He was shot in a parking area outside a radio studio. Van der Graaf, who said he acted to protect vulnerable groups, was sentenced to eighteen years in prison. It was the first political assassination in the Netherlands in modern times. The election went ahead, and the Pim Fortuyn List won twenty-six seats and joined a coalition government that soon collapsed. His ideas continued to influence Dutch politics.