Lijst Pim Fortuyn

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Party logo

The Lijst Pim Fortuyn (LPF) was a right-wing populist party in the Netherlands , named after its founder Pim Fortuyn . She was represented in the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament from 2002 to 2006 . The party took part in the elections for the first time on May 15, 2002 and immediately won 17% of the seats, the highest result ever achieved by a new party in the Netherlands. It was also noteworthy that government participation immediately followed. In the Balkenende cabinet , a coalition of the CDA (Christen-Democratisch Appèl), VVD (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie) and the LPF, they received four ministerial posts and five state secretaries . The LPF Minister for Public Health , Eduard Bomhoff , became Vice Prime Minister . After not being elected to parliament in 2006, the LPF disbanded on January 1, 2008 at the national level.

founding

Party founder Fortuyn in 2002

The LPF was founded on February 14, 2002 by Pim Fortuyn . The day before, the journalist and former associate professor at the Erasmus University Rotterdam had been expelled from this party as the top candidate of the party Leefbaar Nederland (" Livable Netherlands") because he had spoken out in favor of abolishing the first article of the Dutch constitution .

This reads: “ Everyone who is in the Netherlands is treated equally in the same situations. Discrimination on the basis of belief , view of life , political beliefs, race, gender or any other reason is not permitted. "

This statement was preceded by other triggering controversies, such as: "The Netherlands is full" (this meant foreigners) and "I think Islam is a backward culture ". For the Leefbaar Nederland party , the Article 1 statement was the drop that broke the barrel.

Within a short period of time, thirty people were recruited for Fortuyn's new list, and he himself was a top candidate and identification figure. Second on the list was João Varela , a young entrepreneur of Cape Verdean descent, and third, the only person with political experience, Jim Janssen van Raaij . Another candidate was the former editor-in-chief of the weekly Elsevier Ferry Hoogendijk .

In the short preparation period, Fortuyn's list was only able to formulate a short political program under the slogan Zakelijk met een hart (in German, for example: "Sachlich mit Herz"); As a substitute, to a certain extent, his book De puinhopen van eight jaar Paars (in German, for example: "The rubble from eight years of purple"), in which he criticized the policy of the two social liberal ("purple") cabinets under Prime Minister Wim Kok .

Political murder and the time after

Pim Fortuyn was shot dead by the animal protection activist Volkert van der Graaf on May 6, 2002 in the Mediapark in Hilversum . Van der Graaf initially stated to have killed Fortuyn because he had planned to override certain animal welfare regulations. Later, however, he named the “protection of Muslims” from a possible election victory for Fortuyn as a motive. The party decided to continue with Fortuyn as party leader until the elections - nine days later - who could also be voted posthumously. During the election, a good 1.1 million voters voted for Pim Fortuyn; later the term “votes of condolence” came up, although the result was roughly in line with the previous polls.

The party leader was initially Van Langendam. On May 16, 2002, the new party leadership was elected: Mat Herben, until then spokesman; João Varela and Ferry Hoogendijk took over the vice-chairmanship.

Inner unrest

Internal party quarrels, personal quarrels and friction between the party chairmanship and the parliamentary group caused the poll results to plummet. On October 16, 2002, the parliamentary group decided to remove the then chairman Wijnschenk. The two ministers Bomhoff and Heinsbroek, who were arguing on a personal level, took their leave. While the LPF was still hectically looking for a replacement for these officials, the coalition parties CDA and VVD had no hope of improvement. On the same day they expressed their suspicions in the cabinet, and that evening Prime Minister Balkenende submitted a request to dismiss the entire cabinet from Queen Beatrix .

Under the chairmanship of Mat Herben, most of the 26 seats previously won in parliament were lost in the elections on January 22, 2003. LPF returned to the Second Chamber with eight seats.

After a new period full of unrest and quarrels, the parliamentary group resolved to leave the party on August 24, 2004. The reasons for this decision were chaos and unrest in the party. The parliamentary group wanted to continue to use the name "Lijst Pim Fortuyn" - which was officially permitted by the regulations of the Second Chamber. The chairman of the party, now Jan Belder, disagreed with this and demanded a court decision.

Deselection

On November 22, 2006, the LPF suffered a significant defeat in the early parliamentary elections , in which they participated as Lijst Vijf Fortuyn . With a share of the vote of 0.21%, she could no longer win a seat. It was noticeable that the LPF suffered very high losses even in the communities where it was very strong and in 2003 was still able to gain over 8%. Already 0.4% of the votes cast had to be considered a success, mostly no more than 0.2% was achieved.

Self-dissolution

On May 4, 2007, the party's office in The Hague was closed because the party was about to lose its last seat in the Senate on May 29, 2007, until then represented by Rob Hessing, which meant the end of its representation in both houses of the Dutch Parliament meant. From then on, the party only had seats in the municipal councils of The Hague, Duiven, Eindhoven, Spijkenisse and Westland until the next parliamentary elections in 2010, as well as an alderman in the latter municipality. A party conference on the future of Lijst Pim Fortuyn was called for July 21, 2007 . In this, which was true to the previous history of the party turbulent, 29 members voted for and 26 against a dissolution of the party. Due to the lack of attendance, the dissolution of the party had to be confirmed by another party congress. On August 17, 2007, 135 out of 177 votes were in favor of the dissolution of the party, which dissolved on January 1, 2008 as a nationwide organization. Only local organizations that still have municipal mandates continue to work under the name LPF.

Political heirs

As early as the parliamentary elections of 2006, about a year before the official end of the LPF, some parties took up part or all of Pim Fortuyn's legacy or represented similar positions. A number of former, in some cases important, LPF members found a new political home there. The only party from this group that managed to move into the Dutch lower house was the Partij voor de Vrijheid . The other parties followed clearly behind, EénNL narrowly missed entry, the Partij voor Nederland received almost no support.

Election results

  • 2002 : 17.0% - 26 seats
  • 2003 : 5.7% - 8 seats
  • 2006 : 0.2% - 0 seats

LPF Minister

(*) Minister without portfolio , linked to the Ministry of Justice

LPF State Secretaries

  • Rob Hessing - Ministry of the Interior (area of ​​responsibility: public order and security), Cabinet Balkenende I, 2002
  • Cees van Leeuwen - Ministry of Culture (responsibility: culture and media), Cabinet Balkenende I, 2002
  • Jan Odink - Ministry of Agriculture (responsibility: Fisheries), Cabinet Balkenende I, 2002
  • Philomena Bijlhout (took office and resigned on July 22, 2002)
  • Khee Liang Phoa (from September 9, 2002) - Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor (area of ​​responsibility: Emancipation and Family), Cabinet Balkenende I, 2002

literature

  • Paul Lucardie: Populism in the Polder. From the farmers' party to the Pim Fortuyn list. In: Nikolaus Werz (Ed.): Populism: Populists in Übersee und Europa (= Analyzes. Volume 79). Leske and Budrich, Opladen 2003, ISBN 3-8100-3727-3 , pp. 177-194.

Web links

Commons : Lijst Pim Fortuyn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Constitution of the Kingdom of the Netherlands 2008. In: rijksoverheid.nl. Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, 2008, accessed September 27, 2019 . (PDF)
  2. ↑ Beatrice de Graaf, Ilse Raaijmakers: Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism - XV. Assassination of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh. In: uni-muenster.de. NetherlandsNet, August 2009, accessed September 27, 2019 .
  3. ^ Quotes from Pim Fortuyn. In : bare-zitate.de. Retrieved September 27, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Zakelijk met een hard. In: rug.nl. University of Groningen, June 21, 2019, accessed on September 27, 2019 (Dutch). (PDF)
  5. ↑ Elżbieta Posłuszna: Environmental and Animal Rights - Extremism, Terrorism and National Security . Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford 2015, ISBN 978-0-12-801478-3 , pp. 173-175 .
  6. ↑ EénNL partijgeschiedenis. In: rug.nl. University of Groningen, July 4, 2012, accessed on September 27, 2019 (Dutch).
  7. ^ Partij voor Nederland (PvN). In: parlement.com. Retrieved September 27, 2019 (Dutch).