NETHERLANDS: DUTCH EXPRESS MIXED VIEWS AFTER SLAIN POPULIST PIM FORTUYN'S PARTY STORM INTO SECOND PLACE IN COUNTRY'S GENERAL ELECTIONS
Record ID:
647158
NETHERLANDS: DUTCH EXPRESS MIXED VIEWS AFTER SLAIN POPULIST PIM FORTUYN'S PARTY STORM INTO SECOND PLACE IN COUNTRY'S GENERAL ELECTIONS
- Title: NETHERLANDS: DUTCH EXPRESS MIXED VIEWS AFTER SLAIN POPULIST PIM FORTUYN'S PARTY STORM INTO SECOND PLACE IN COUNTRY'S GENERAL ELECTIONS
- Date: 16th May 2002
- Summary: THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS (MAY 16, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE VIEW OF THE HAGUE 0.05 2. SV'S/ZOOM IN: MAN READING NEWSPAPER (3 SHOTS) 0.29 3. SV'S: PEOPLE BUYING NEWSPAPERS (2 SHOTS) 0.45 4. PAN/SV: PEOPLE AT TRAIN STATION (2 SHOTS) 1.04 5. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAN ROELFEMA SAYING: "It is far right and it is not good for Holland. I think for the people from outside Holland, who live there, it is not a good result. In one or two years we will have new election. I'm rather shocked about the results." 1.32 6. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) FREEK HENNING SAYING: "I think it the only solution, Looking at the results, there will be a coalition between CDA and Balkenende and List Pim Fortuyn. There will be a change. They talked a lot about negative points of the former government and now it is up to them to show the difference." 2.07 7. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN SAYING: "I think it is a shame that the VVD lost so many seats. It is all because what happened with Pim Fortuyn. I think we should have waited a little." 2.20 8. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) ANKE VAN DE MOLEN SAYING: "I think that it is a little bit embarrassing, because it is such a big change from what we are used to. But I think we were fed up with eight years of the same government although they did well. But I didn't vote for Pim Fortuyn nor for CBA." 2.42 9. CLOSE OF NEWSPAPERS BEING BROUGHT 2.47 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 31st May 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS
- Country: Netherlands
- Reuters ID: LVA7UJ1UEO56JA2ASSA7D3W0SIPE
- Story Text: Dutch have expressed mixed reactions after slain
populist Pim Fortuyn's party stormed to second place on
Wednesday's general elections. The country's centre-left was
routed, in the latest example of Europe's dramatic shift to
the right.
Victorious Dutch conservatives prepared on Thursday
(May 16) for coalition talks with slain populist Pim Fortuyn's
debutante party, which stormed to second place in elections
which underlined Europe's recent shift to the right.
Voters ditched the centre-left government of premier Wim
Kok in a landslide swing to the conservative Christian
Democrats (CDA) on Wednesday in a country better known for its
tolerance of euthanasia, gay marriage and prostitution than
for political instability.
The Labour party, in coalition for eight years with the
free-market VVD and D66 liberals, suffered its worst defeat
since World War Two in a momentous election dominated by voter
concerns over crime, immigration and public services.
Now, the Dutch are split over whether the CDA, which took
43 of parliament's 150 seats, should link up with Fortuyn's
anti-immigration party, which was due to select a leader to
replace their dead founder on Thursday.
The fatal shooting of Fortuyn as he left a radio station
near Amsterdam triggered an unprecedented wave of shock and
anger throughout the Netherlands and was seen as prompting a
significant sympathy vote for his party.
"I think it is a shame that the VVD lost so many seats. It
is all because what happened with Pim Fortuyn. I think we
should have waited a little," said one voter.
The three-month-old Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) won the
second-biggest number of seats with 26. Nearly two in five
Dutch want the LPF in a new government, but nearly as many are
opposed, a snap opinion poll showed.
The VVD has been tipped as a third potential coalition
member. A combination of the CDA, VVD and LPF would have a
comfortable parliamentary majority with 92 seats.
Coalition building in the fragmented Dutch political arena
is slow process and often takes two to three months.
Formed in March by the openly gay, shaven-headed former
academic, Fortuyn's fledgling party gasped at its own success
in the most astonishing Dutch election in living memory.
An animal rights activist has been charged with killing
Fortuyn, whose anti-immigration and anti-Islam views stoked
controversy in a country with a sizeable immigrant population.
The Labour party was also due to choose a new leader on
Thursday. The once mighty party, credited with social reform,
job creation and steady economic growth, lost almost half its
seats to tie with the VVD for third place on 23 seats.
All three ruling parties haemorrhaged votes, extending a
Europe-wide trend that has seen left-leaning governments
tumble in the past 12 months in Italy, Denmark, Portugal and
France, as support grows for the populist far right.
The successor to Kok as party leader, Ad Melkert,
announced he would step down to make way for new blood in the
party.
The VVD's parliamentary party leader, Hans Dijkstal,
indicated he, like Melkert, would step down.
Pundits had predicted that Fortuyn's murder would prompt a
big voter showing. Turnout was estimated at around 80 percent,
significantly higher than four years ago.
Fortuyn, a non-conformist who had flirted with Marxism and
passionately advocated free speech, rejected comparisons with
French National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen or Austria's
Joerg Haider, saying the liberal Dutch establishment had
"demonised" him as a far-right extremist.
His outspoken attacks on the cosy Dutch political elite
and a consensus style that spawned generations of well-meaning
but dull politicians clearly struck a chord with voters.
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