Charley, do you know what JFK and Pim Fortuyn had in common?
Both were devout Catholics... in a Protestant bastion:
He said Fortuyn - who was openly gay - had been a very religious Roman Catholic.
Rotterdam Cathedral - which was Fortuyn's parish church - will also hold his funeral on Friday.
Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok and the leaders of most leading political parties are expected to attend the service, which will be conducted by Bishop Adrian van Luyn.
[...]
news.bbc.co.uk
Get the picture?? Just like US Prez Kennedy, Fortuyn was an ideological threat of sorts... The Netherlands' core values were shaped in her heroic resistance against the Catholic persecution by the Spanish hegemon in the XVIth century (Philip II, Duke of Parma, Inquisition,...) Ever since their victory over Spain (Treaty of Utrecht [*]), the Dutch vowed religious tolerance towards all persuasions (at the time, Islam wasn't concerned, of course). Pim Fortuyn's virulent Muslim-bashing broke with such a longstanding religious openmindedness... Granted, Fortuyn wasn't your classic, rabid xenophobe, he didn't call for expelling non-European immigrants back to their native Africa, Turkey, Surinam,... Yet, he represented a serious risk for the Dutch body politic --on the medium/long term. How come? Simple: as the all media pointed out, the so-called Fortuyn List was a one-man-show politics... every issue facing the Fortuyn party somehow boiled down to its maverick guru's latest whim. Therefore, although Fortuyn might have been branded as a rather sympathetic populist, he nonetheless drove a perilous wedge in the Netherlands' political fabric by opening it to less savory individuals... Indeed, what has probably upset the Dutch establishment was Fortuyn's current AND FUTURE entourage. Fortuyn was thought of as the far-right's Trojan Horse in sheep clothing, that is, an altogether harmless populist quack --who just opened the gates of a polite democracy to a much more dangerous gang of followers.... I guess that's a risk the Dutch ruling elites couldn't tolerate.
Gus
[*] theotherside.co.uk
Spaink & Panoussis, a couple of nice Dutch fellows:
klotenknijper.com
spaink.net |
