Fortuyn Legacy
By Henry Sturman  
 TCS 
Two years ago, on May 6 2002, the flamboyant and openly gay Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was murdered by an animal rights activist. It was the first political assassination in Holland since 1584. The event happened only nine days before the parliamentary elections and shocked the country. By that time Fortuyn and his party had risen from nothing to being a huge political movement. In one of the latest polls before his death Fortuyn's party was predicted to get 38 out of 150 seats, which would have made it the biggest party and which would have made Fortuyn prime minister. But with their leader gone, the party got only 26 seats and the Christian Democrats became the biggest party with 43 seats.

Fortuyn's party, the LPF (List Pim Fortuyn), did become part of the government coalition after the election. But without their charismatic leader the new and inexperienced party quickly fell into chaos and the government collapsed within several months. After the new election the LPF was left with only eight seats. But while his party has dwindled in power, many of Fortuyn's ideas have survived. What has Fortuyn's influence on the current political situation in The Netherlands been and what might have been different had Fortuyn had not been assassinated?