Description
May 6th 2002. Populist Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn seems set to win the upcoming general elections when he was shot dead as he leaves a radio studio after a live interview. Only three months earlier this wealthy businessman had been rated a rank outsider, but he’d soared in the polls and was now tipped to be the next Prime Minister of Holland. The assassin, 33 year old animal rights activist, Volkert van der Graaf, is arrested on the spot and later condemned to 18 years imprisonment. The country is in a state of shock, but nevertheless, a few days after the shooting, Fortuyn’s party still wins the election with around one-third of the votes.
As part of the ensuing coalition government his party colleagues try to implement Fortuyn’s tough programme of reforms. But they are surprised when the long-established rival parties hi-jack’ their ideas in order to steal away the Fortuyn voters. Today there is unease that the killing may not simply have been the act of a lone gunman, but that he had responded to the climate of hate whipped up by the political establishment who were reluctant to give up their long-held grip on power. So what was the real attitude of the Establishment and of the Media to Pim Fortuyn meteoric ascension? Are they not the indirect triggers in the assassination?
