Politieke Moord Gepleegd in Nederland

We hoorden er helemaal niks van in de Verenigde Staten, maar heel Nederland is gestopd deze weekend. De "populairste politicus sinds jaren", Pim Fortuyn werd begraafte vandaag in Rotterdam.

That is, we heard absolutely nothing of it in the United States, but all of the Netherlands is stopped this weekend. The "most popular politician in years", Pim Fortuyn was buried today in Rotterdam.

It was a fitting funeral for the enigmatic populist, a skin-headed, gay, former sociology professor, who started his own political party in the last year. He disdained even his own followers, according to the Times of London, and deplored immigration from Muslim countries. In blue-collar Rotterdam municipal elections his party won 30% of the vote a few months ago, and he immediately became a controversial phenomenon that polarized Dutch society. According to current polls, his party will be the second-largest in the Dutch parliament, though it is almost leaderless. The election is being held on Wednesday. Oddly enough, the very rational Dutch haven't turned in greater numbers to Lijst Pim Fortuyn than they had before; some are going to vote elsewhere now that the charismatic leader has been assassinated. Perhaps rather uninterestingly, the assassin was not some angered liberal or Muslim; he was an animal rights extremist who had probably killed before. I honestly can't figure out who the successor is, but apparently there's no clear number 2. I guess the fact that the political party was named "Lijst Pim Fortuyn" should have clued me in to that...UPDATE: It's P. Langendam, but that was only decided quite recently.

In the post-Christian, morally bankrupt jungle that is Europe, this murder, like mass shootings in Germany, Switzerland, and France recently, have sent people looking for answers and questioning their own societies. Not knowing God, they look to government - Germany wants to ban violent video games - or to heroes: Fortuyn is being hailed as a messiah by his followers, and the popular spin on the assassination is that he "gave up his life for the people" and that Prime Minister Kok (yes, his name is Kok, and the second most powerful politician is named Borst, Dutch for breast, remnants of the Dutch who protested the forced last-name-taking under Napoleon by giving themselves obscene names) is a murderer because he, and other liberal elites, demonized Pim. An odd case altogether, and I just wish I could be in Rotterdam right now to witness this. It's sad, but disturbing - if they embrace an enigmatic professor-turned-politician this easily, how much more will they go crazy over the Antichrist...