May 7, 2002	Tuesday	Safar 23, 1423

THE HAGUE, May 6: Dutch far-right leader Pim Fortuyn was shot and killed by an unidentified gunman on Monday, nine days before national elections in which his anti-immigrant party was set to make strong showing, public television reported.

The flamboyant and openly gay Fortuyn, 54, was hit by six bullets to the neck, head and chest, a spokesman for his party told Dutch television.

Witnesses said a man in a baseball cap opened fire as Fortuyn was about to get into a chauffeur-driven limousine in the parking lot of a Dutch media centre in the central city of Hilversum.

Fortuyn sent shock waves through the Dutch political scene after he and his followers won 17 of 45 council seats in March’s municipal elections in the number-two city Rotterdam with an aggressive nationalist and anti-immigrant platform.

His self-styled Pim Fortuyn’s List party had been expected to make another strong showing in May 15 parliamentary elections, seen as the next test of the far-right in Europe after the election run of France’s National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Acting Prime Minister Wim Kok said before Fortuyn’s death was confirmed he was “shocked by the assassination attempt.”

Other parties reacted with shock to the shooting and have decided to halt their election campaign, Hans Dijkstal, the leader of the liberal VVD party, told Dutch newsagency ANP.

Ad Melkert, the leader of the ruling labour party PvdA, described the shooting as “appalling”.

Fortuyn, a political newcomer, had been largely dismissed by the major parties after he let loose a torrent of hard-right rhetoric in the run-up to the March vote, with many assuming he could not appeal to the traditionally Dutch liberal electorate.—AFP