Who is Pim Fortuyn?
W. S. P. (Pim) Fortuyn, born on 19 February 1948, is a former sociology lecturer in Groningen and ‘special professor’ in Rotterdam. He is also a well-known former columnist for the conservative weekly Elsevier, and author of more than ten books, of which his “Against the Islamisation of our culture” (1997) is the most controversial. On 20 August 2001 Fortuyn announced that he wanted to enter politics and on 25 November he was elected leader of Leefbaar Nederland (Liveable Netherlands, LN), a new anti-Establishment party that was inspired by the success of various local Leefbaar parties in the 1990s. Support for LN increased, reaching a high of 15% in early February 2002. However, on 9 February LN kicked Fortuyn out of the party because of his continuing emphasis on anti-Islam statements and his proposal to delete article 1 of the Dutch constitution. While some commentators predicted the end of Fortuyn, the new Lijst Pim Fortuyn (LPF), founded two days after the split, soon proved that
