Here's more on Fortuyn coming from a Dutchman.
It wasn't so much what he wrote (he was a terrible writer) but the way in which he acted on camera. Fortuyn was on the one hand claiming that the other political parties were against him, the media included.
Some months after his assassination, it turned out that his 'being unfairly treated' by the media was largely made up by himself. It was just a way to create a hype around his person plus the more emotional people would think Fortuyn really was the underdog. There were a few open confrontations with the press that later turned out to be staged by Fortuyn.
But there was a more unpleasant side to him. He could act like any right-wing extremist when Islam was concerned. In fact, from what I've seen he was much worse than the extremists, because the extremist politicians try to look respectable (which has worked to an extent in Belgium). Fortuyn would lash out against muslim youth in front of the camera, saying it was an outrage that Dutch (read white) elderly women were being harassed and attacked by muslim youths. I guess he would have been OK with the fact if they were white christian youth instead of muslims.
He also liked to sneer: "Islam is a backward religion." And he used a much worse word: retarded.
Of course, he didn't deserve to die. But then I think nobody does.
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