Petrus (Pim) Fortuyn was a controversial, openly gay, charismatic populistic right-wing politician in the Netherlands. He was assassinated for his anti-immigration positions during the 2002 Dutch national election campaign by Volkert van der Graaf, who confessed in court to murdering Fortuyn to stop him from targeting "the weak parts of society to score points" in seeking political power.

Fortuyn was the centre of controversy for his views on Islam and his anti-immigration positions. He called Islam "a backward culture" and said that if it were legally possible he would close the borders for Muslim immigrants. He was labelled a far-right populist by his opponents and in the media, but he fiercely rejected this label and distanced himself clearly from far-right politicians. While Fortuyn compared his own politics to centre-right politicians such as Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, he also admired former Dutch Prime Minister Joop den Uyl, a socialist. Fortuyn could be considered a nationalist, on cultural rather than racial grounds.

The 2002 elections, only weeks after Fortuyn’s death, were marked by large losses for the VVD and especially the Social Democratic Party PvdA (which was even halved in size); both parties replaced their unpopular leaders shortly after. The election winners were Fortuyn’s party LPF, and the Christian Democratic Party CDA.

Wikipedia.