Pim Fortuyn's provocations over Islam, Moroccans, discrimination

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Pim Fortuyn's provocations over Islam, Moroccans, discrimination

In an interview with the Dutch progressive daily De Volkskrant Saturday 9 February, Prof. Pim FORTUYN, the popular and populist head of the new party Liveable Netherlands (Leefbaar Nederland), initially an aggregation of local municipal lists which many polls still credited last week of 20 to 25 seats on 150 for the May 15 legislative elections, made some statements over what he intended to do if he was in power and over some personal opinions over controversial themes his party had forbidden him to state publicly during the campaign.

As a consequence of his statements that were extremely anti-Muslim, anti-migrant, anti-refugees and even proposing to expell youngsters coming from the Dutch West Indies, but also lenient towards the former leader of the far right Center Democrats Party, the - now reduced to nearly nothing - Dutch version of French Front National or German NPD (see excerpts below), the president of Leefbaar Nederland has announced Sunday at noon on tv the Saturday evening decision of the steering comitte to throw him from the head of the list, but immediately added he hoped Fortuyn would head a list of his own, and that together, in their common battle against the present Dutch government (a coalition of social-democrats, right-wing liberals and centre-left democrats), they maybe would even make better results with two lists than with only one.

The most controversed statement of Fortuyn was 'I am in favour of a suppression of that odd Constitution article: you shall not discriminate.' A political commentator of De Volkskrant wrote that after these statements, more particularly this last one, Fortuyn and Leefbaar Nederland disqualified themselves from participation in any government whatsoever, a participation they hoped for with the prospect of so many seats predicted by polls. Fortuyn declared on Dutch TV Sunday evening that he indeed intends to head his own list for the elections should the rank and file members of LN not soon overturn the head comittee decision.

Excerpts of the interview :

'They [the Muslims] see us as an inferior sort of people. Moroccan youngsters never steal a Moroccan. Did you ever notice that ? We may well be stolen. And me, of course, the double because not only am I a Christian dog but even less than a pig [this is probably, as it appears later in the interview, an allusion to his being openly gay]. Say, they can fool you. Mister, if I can make it juridically possible, I'd say no more Muslim comes in [the Netherlands] ! But that I can't get. Islam is backward, I just say it, it's just a backward culture.'
'I say: everyone who's here, stays here. (...) For West Indian youngsters I want to make an exception. They came in here illegally; now, out you go !'
'Janmaat [leader of far right 'Center Democrats'] was just partially right. And because the demonization in which your newspaper too took a part, this all couldn't be said any more.'
'I don't hate Islam. I find it a backward culture. I travelled a lot in the world. And everywhere where Islam reigns, it is simply terrible. All this double-mindedness.'

comments and translation Pierre-Yves Lambert, February 11, 2002

picture: http://www.sap-pos.org/

read also Steven Erlanger, Europeans Take a Rightward Tilt on Security - Law and Order Parties Put Pressure on LEft, New York Times Service Thursday, January 31, 2002

read also in De Standaard (Bruxelles) of March 9, 2002: INTERVIEW. Filip Dewinter over Zwarte Woensdag in Nederland (Filip Dewinter, leader of the far right xenophobic Belgian party Vlaams Blok stresses the physical likeness of Fortuyn and Mussolini, which in his mind is probably a very flattering comment. As to his opinion of Jörg Haider, he is "a typical macho Austrian", and Umberto Bossi "is so Italian that it verges on caricature". Dewinter doesn't understand either why Fortuyn exposes his homosexuality everywhere, "with such a sexual morale you could never be popular here in Flanders)

www.suffrage-universel.be
Citoyenneté, démocratie, ethnicité et nationalité aux Pays-Bas