Pim Fortuyn

Pim Fortuyn in 2002

Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn (19 February 1948 – 6 May 2002), known as Pim Fortuyn, was a Dutch politician, civil servant, sociologist, author and professor who formed his own party, Pim Fortuyn List (Lijst Pim Fortuyn or LPF)

Quotes

• I don't hate Islam. I consider it a retarded culture. I have travelled much in the world. And wherever Islam rules, it's just terrible. All the hypocrisy. It's a bit like those old reformed protestants. The Reformed lie all the time. And why is that? Because they have standards and values that are so high that you can't humanly maintain them. You also see that in that Muslim culture. Then look at the Netherlands. In what country could an electoral leader of such a large movement as mine be openly homosexual? How wonderful that that's possible. That's something that one can be proud of. And I'd like to keep it that way, thank you very much.
  • Original text: Ik haat de islam niet. Ik vind het een achterlijke cultuur. Ik heb veel gereisd in de wereld. En overal waar de islam de baas is, is het gewoon verschrikkelijk. Al die dubbelzinnigheid. Het heeft wel iets weg van die oude gereformeerden. Gereformeerden liegen altijd. En hoe komt dat? Omdat ze een normen- en waardenstelsel hebben dat zo hoog ligt dat je dat menselijkerwijs niet kunt handhaven. Dat zie je in die moslimcultuur ook. Kijk dan naar Nederland. In welk land zou een lijsttrekker van een zo grote beweging als de mijne openlijk homoseksueel kunnen zijn? Wat fantastisch dat dat hier kan. Daar mag je trots op zijn. En dat wil ik graag effe zo houden (Pim Fortuyn op herhaling: 'De islam is een achterlijke cultuur', De Volkskrant, 5 May 2012)
  • de Volkskrant (9 February 2002). Fortuyn was expelled from the Liveable Netherlands party for making the statement. The Dutch word achterlijk ("backward") can also be an insult (comparable to "retarded"), though Fortuyn denied intending to use the word in this way.

• If you could see what I get in my mailbox every now and then, regarding threats, and so on, well that doesn't exactly cheer you up, and the Dutch government – and I think it's a 'bloody shame' – helps create a climate demonizing me personally. And if something were to happen to me – and I'm glad that you're giving me the chance (to say this) – if something were to happen to me, then they will be partly responsible, and they can't just walk away saying "I'm not the one who committed the attack." They helped to create this climate (this atmosphere), and it needs to stop.
  • Appearance on the Dutch-TV program "Jensen!", a couple of months before being assassinated [1]

• I will not change my opinion, dear people, it is 5 minutes before twelve. Not just here in Holland. but in the whole of Europe. And is that what you want? I take my stand for this country, that which has been build up in the last five or six centuries. Damn it, we have a fifth column... Okay, let me tell you now straight the way it is! A fifth column of people who want to destroy this country! I will not go for that, and I say, "you can stay here, but you must adapt." I must hear "Allah is great", that I am a "dirty pig"… you are a "Christian dog". That is what they say, and you think that is okay... And I have so far been very reserved. I have never repeated that... but you accept being walked over, and I will not let that happen anymore. And that's where I get all those seats from (in the polls). Because this country is fed up! … C'est ça! That is what I stand for. And if I must express that otherwise, well, fine... but it is about your children, your grandchildren. For what else is this about? Must I explain more here? I can not do it any other way, and will not do it any other way. Then I would rather be finished off. Okay, fine... but the problem sir, will remain. That will remain. People have had more than enough of it. Damn it, in my city, Moroccan boys, Turkish boys... who do not rob the Turks, the Moroccans, but rob you and me and little old ladies. And the police? What they do? Damn it... nothing. They tell you: "If you say that, you discriminate". And that is what I express from the Dutch people. And I stand for it, I stand for it. Is that not allowed? Okay, I respect that. C'est ça [That’s all].
  • Nederland 2 documentary "The Night of Fortuyn" [2]

• Ik ben een driftkop, wat is daar mis mee?
  • Translation: I'm a hothead, what's wrong with that?
  • Gay Krant, issue 458 (April 2002)

• Muslims have a very bad attitude to homosexuality, they're very intolerant … And women. For them women are second class citizens. What we are witnessing now is a clash of civilisations, not just between states but within them.
  • Interview with BBC reporter Kirsty Lang (4 May 2002)

• If you try to discuss multiculturalism in the UK you're labelled a racist. But here we're still free to talk, and I say multicultural society doesn't work. We're not living closer, we're living apart.
  • "Holland's high-camp hero of new politics", The Telegraph (4 May 2002).

• I'm not anti-Muslim, I'm not anti-immigration; I'm saying we've got big problems in our cities. It's not very smart to make the problem bigger by letting in millions more immigrants from rural Muslim cultures that don't assimilate.
  • "Holland's high-camp hero of new politics", The Telegraph (4 May 2002).

About Pim Fortuyn

• Someone who wants to go back to the good old days, but with that also wants to go back to the times when he himself would not have been possible. He wanted to return to the old standards of decency and neatness, but at the same time he was the most flamboyant poof, with his two lapdogs. He yelled for Moroccans to behave, but meanwhile he wanted to be blown by those same Moroccans. Back to the fifties, but in those same fifties he himself would never have been able to come out for his flamboyant homosexuality. It's just a huge paradox and in a very different, I hope less perverse way, I do recognize it in myself. Rules have to be there, for others.
  • Ramsey Nasr, Romantiek? Daar heb ik niets mee – In gesprek met Ramsey Nasr, Literair Nederland.