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Are you a racist, Statikk?

Gunman slays Dutch far-right leader


AFP - Dutch far-right leader Pim Fortuyn has been shot and killed, nine days before national elections in which his anti-immigrant party was set to make a strong showing.

The flamboyant and openly gay Fortuyn, 54, was hit by six bullets to the neck, head and chest, a spokesman for his party told Dutch television.

Witnesses said a man in a baseball cap opened fire as Fortuyn was about to get into a chauffeur-driven limousine in the parking lot of a Dutch media centre in the central city of Hilversum.

The suspected killer, a 33-year-old white Dutch male, was later arrested and his house was being searched, police said.

There was no indication of a possible motive for the killing.

Fortuyn sent shock waves through the Dutch political scene after he and his followers won 17 of 45 council seats in March's municipal elections in the number-two city Rotterdam with an aggressive nationalist and anti-immigrant platform.

His self-styled Pim Fortuyn's List party had been expected to make another strong showing in May 15 parliamentary elections, seen as the next test of the far-right in Europe after the election run of France's National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Acting Prime Minister Wim Kok said before Fortuyn's death was confirmed he was "shocked by the assassination attempt".

Other parties reacted with shock to the shooting and have decided to halt their election campaign, Hans Dijkstal, the leader of the liberal VVD party, told Dutch newsagency ANP.

Ad Melkert, the leader of the ruling labour party PvdA, described the shooting as "appalling".

"It's hard to grasp this can happen in The Netherlands. Dutch democracy has lost its innocence," he told NOS television.

Fortuyn, a political newcomer, had been largely dismissed by the major parties after he let loose a torrent of hard-right rhetoric in the run-up to the March vote, with many assuming he could not appeal to the traditionally Dutch liberal electorate.

Professor Pim, as he liked to be called, shocked the Dutch establishment with a blunt call for repeal of the first article of the constitution which forbids discrimination.

His campaign sound-bites were as provocative as they were unforgettable. His promise to shake up traditional politics and stiffen the Dutch fibre particularly struck a nerve with young voters.

His prescription for drug addicts: "You want more? An overdose? Go ahead!" His welcome for immigrants: a "The Netherlands is full" sign.

And he once described Islam as a "backward culture".

In a country where most politicians pride themselves on their low profile, Fortuyn stood out with his snazzy designer suits, two yapping toy dogs called Kenneth and Carla, and a statuesque butler.

Born in 1948 in a conservative Catholic family in a small town in the Dutch northwest, Fortuyn went to the hippie mecca of Amsterdam in the 1970s to study sociology.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/World/story_31087.asp