Fortuyn: Controversial, Flamboyant and Dead

L O N D O N, May 7 -- Blunt, outspoken and flamboyant, Pim Fortuyn was a politician with an approach very different to those previously used in Dutch politics.

But on Monday, the country's most controversial political figure was dead after being shot in the head six times by a lone gunman as he left an interview at a radio station outside Amsterdam.

Professor Pim, as he liked to be called, was openly homosexual, a dapper dresser, incredibly wealthy and an owner of two lap dogs — Kenneth and Carla. His Rotterdam mansion echoed his flamboyant lifestyle complete with marble floors, modern art, statues of naked men and butlers referring to him as their "master." His preferred method of transport was a chauffeur-driven Daimler.

The charismatic 54-year-old, a former Marxist sociology professor was, until February, leader of the Leefbaar Nederland (Livable Netherlands) party, who won an astonishing 35 percent of the vote in a recent local election in the city of Rotterdam.

But, he was forced to split from them following his call for the repeal of the first article of the Dutch constitution which forbids discrimination.

Shutting Out Immigrants

Although he is a relatively recent addition to the Dutch political arena, Fortuyn has sent shock waves through Holland with his aggressive anti-immigrant and anti-Islam platform — views that have found favor across the country.

Such controversy only enhanced Fortuyn's reputation. He went on to form his own party — the Pim Fortuyn List, which was expected to become the country's third largest party in the general election on May 15.

With his slogan, "Holland is Full," Fortuyn campaigned for an end to immigration, calling for all ethnic minorities already resident in Holland to integrate, suggesting that they be forced to learn Dutch.

He used his sexuality to attack Muslims. In a recent book called The Islamisation of Our Culture, he described Islam as a "backward culture," claiming that Muslim immigrants undermined Holland's permissive values particularly regarding same-sex marriages.