Pim Fortuyn has been shot!

[Hitro]

I won't cry about Fortuin's death (is he dead?) because there are thousands of better people dying every day. But from a political point of view this is a catastrophe. As already said here such an assassination only produces a martyr for his movement and no smart opponent would do that (guess why Israel hasn't killed Arafat yet).
And it won't matter much if the assasin is an immigrant or not. It will definitely damage the immigrants reputation, no matter who did it.

 

[Adebisi]

This has already been posted. Oops.

 

[willemvanoranje]

Originally posted by Hitro
I won't cry about Fortuin's death (is he dead?) because there are thousands of better people dying every day. But from a political point of view this is a catastrophe. As already said here such an assassination only produces a martyr for his movement and no smart opponent would do that (guess why Israel hasn't killed Arafat yet).
And it won't matter much if the assasin is an immigrant or not. It will definitely damage the immigrants reputation, no matter who did it.

He is dead indeed. I just heard he was already warned for something today; he intended to go into a hotel ans spent the night there instead of in his hous.

 

[Panda]

Sad how often people who claim to defend democracy and freedom resort to the very tactics they claim to oppose Makes you think...

First police reports say the arrested suspect was native dutch (i.e. non-immigrant)

 

[amadeus]

With the recent conservative upswing in Europe, I think it's really stupid that people are floating around these buzzwords intended to undermine democratic societies -- xenophobe, fascist, right-wing, anti-Semetic, etc...

It's really starting to get ridiculous.

 

[Zwelgje]

It has been hours now and I still can't come up with words to describe my feelings on this whole situation. I didn't support Fortuyn but he did shake up the political scene here and I liked him for that. He dared to say and was able to say what many other people were thinking (hence the big support for him).
This is an attack on Fortuyn but it's also an attack on our society, the signal is: if you say something I don't like in public an if you have succes in doing so you can be shot by an oponent. So sick, it just doesn't seem something that fits in the way the vast majority of Dutch society thinks.

Last news, the guy who did it was native Dutch and refuses to comment on his action.

 

[Matrix]

Let me make one thing clear about Fortuyn: he was not extreme right. The press and the social parties drew him like that, but that was simply a big mistake. You must not compare him with Le Pen, Filip de Winter or Jörg Haider.

TheDuckOfFlanders, what you posted was not far from his own opinion. Fact is he really cared about people, including immigrants! He said he'd take care of all the immigrants currently present in the Netherlands, but we're full and we can't have more people in it.

That last thing doesn't make him extreme right.

Oh, and by the way: according to Le Pen, Fortuyn was shot because of his sexual preverence. But I can laugh about that remark.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

The story that will be in today's Independent:

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=292562

Is it because he:
1. Was gay.
2. Was anti-immigration.
3. Called Islam "backward".

 

[allhailIndia]

Originally posted by kittenOFchaos
The story that will be in today's Independent:

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=292562

Is it because he:
1. Was gay.
2. Was anti-immigration.
3. Called Islam "backward".

So basically he was shot for being what he is.

Hmmm, I wonder why there is surprise and shock over this

 

[andycapp]

The political phenomnena Pim Fortuyn represented is something that seems to be sweeping many 'Western' countries. Australia had Pauline Hanson and her One Nation Party - now on the way to being relegated to the status of historical/political footnote.

The rightwing xenophobic policies of these political movements represent the failure of mainstream political parties to understand (amongst other things) the fear many ordinary people feel about the prospect of increasing numbers of people from the third world seeking refuge (both political and economic) in their midst. And a lack of answers.

I don't agree with the political views of Pim Fortuyn, but I deplore his murder not least because it is an attack on the democratic process and that is something everyone who values freedom and democracy should be concerned about.

 

[Zwelgje]

Apparently he has been shot by some guy involved in extreme left wing movements. The same left wing movements that always condemn right wing politics because of their anti-democratic views....ironic isn't it?

 

[basher]

Originally posted by Matrix
Anyway, how does this fall for you, the non-Dutch?

I feel bad. When a politician in such a peaceful country like the Netherlands gets assassinated, I become worried. No matter which party he belonged to; disagreements ought to be solved in a different way. There might be some anti-gay attitudes behind this, too.

Has the assassin been caught yet? So he has been caught. Nutjob! He must not have a clue about how democracy works.

 

[willemvanoranje]

Originally posted by civ1-addict
Apparently he has been shot by some guy involved in extreme left wing movements. The same left wing movements that always condemn right wing politics because of their anti-democratic views....ironic isn't it?

That's what the Telegraaf says....and I don't like that newspaper nor believe everything in it. The shooter hasn't said anything yet and no one knows who he is, so how does the Telegraaf know this?

 

[willemvanoranje]

Originally posted by kittenOFchaos
The story that will be in today's Independent:

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=292562

Is it because he:
1. Was gay.
2. Was anti-immigration.
3. Called Islam "backward".

1. bull****, that hasn't been an issue over here in decades
2. a lot of people are (I'm not though)
3. made a lot of people mad, but he wasn't shot by a muslim, so...

I think people abroad have a bad view of this man....and a bit of our country as well.

 

[TheDuckOfFlanders]

That's what the Telegraaf says....and I don't like that newspaper nor believe everything in it. The shooter hasn't said anything yet and no one knows who he is, so how does the Telegraaf know this

It's probably nothing more than pure speculation ,wich ,in the current circumstance's ,result's in some more copy's sold of that particular newspaper.

If this would have been a political act ,i presume it would have been kept secret by the authority's to not endanger the investigation

 

[Dutchman]

It's really horrible that this happend, that somebody was killed for his opinion !!!!!!! It's a political murder in the Netherlands!! who would have thought that!! And the killer is an extreem left-wing envirmental activist with a wife and a child! how and why could he do this I don't understand, but I know this he is a sick f*ck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[allhailIndia]

Well all things good or bad have to come to every country, and political assassination is something practised the world over and I believe that no country and no politician who is unafraid to give his frank opinion is free from it.

It happened to Gandhi, it happened to Martin Luther King Jr. and a whole lot of others. I do sympathize with the Dutch, but it useless to spend too much time "speculating" about it and get on with your lives

 

[philippe]

i saw the pictures of pim fortyn dead and i also saw that the poeple who liked him started a fire destroyeing several cars
and there are candles burning for him and flowers.
i think that the netherlands now come through a dark period.

 

[willemvanoranje]

Last political murder in Holland I know of:

murder on Johan and Cornelis de Witt in 1672 by the Dutch people. Those two guys were the leaders of the country.

the only other politcal murder I know of is the murder on Willem van Oranje himself by Balthasar Gerards, back in 1584, ordered by the Spanish king. Gerards was promissed land and title plus 24.000 golden dukats......he ended up being ripped in 4 parts by 4 horses.

 

[Adebisi]

He was shot by a communist. How typical.

We aren't going to get anywhere in Europe unless we treat both extreme left and right equally. The youth leftist movements in Europe has gotten way out of hand now. They are yelling at the Israelis without knowing a ***u* abot what's going on in the Middle East and they are blaming the Jews for this and that.