General elections were held in the Netherlands on 15 May 2002.[1] The elections were amongst the most dramatic in Dutch history,[2] not just in terms of the electoral results, as they were completely overshadowed by the assassination of leader Pim Fortuyn only nine days before election day.
The Netherlands is a country located mainly in Northwestern Europe. The European portion of the Netherlands consists of twelve separate provinces that border Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, with maritime borders in the North Sea with Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. Together with three island territories in the Caribbean Sea—Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba— it forms a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The official language is Dutch, but a secondary official language in the province of Friesland is West Frisian.
Pim Fortuyn, a Dutch politician, was assassinated by Volkert van der Graaf in Hilversum, North Holland on 6 May 2002, nine days before the Dutch general election of 2002.
Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn, was a Dutch politician, civil servant, sociologist, author and professor who formed his own party, Pim Fortuyn List in 2002.
Fortuyn had led the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) party, a right-wing populist party that represented his political views. He had drawn controversy in the campaign with his views on Islam, attacked the government's immigration policies and had also questioned many aspects of government by the previous 'purple' cabinets of Wim Kok, which he blamed for everything from crime to waiting lists in health services. After his death, the LPF made their general election debut with 17% of the vote, coming in second place. The Christian Democratic Appeal, who took a neutral stance towards Fortuyn, gained seats to become the country's largest political party. On the other hand, the three parties in the government all lost a significant number of seats.
The Pim Fortuyn List was a right-wing populist political party in the Netherlands. The eponymous founder of the party was Pim Fortuyn, a charismatic former university professor and political columnist who initially had planned to contest the 2002 general election as leader of the Livable Netherlands (LN) party. He was however dismissed as party leader in February 2002 due to controversial remarks he made in a newspaper interview on immigration-related issues, and instead founded LPF a few days later. After gaining support in opinion polls, Fortuyn was assassinated on 6 May 2002, nine days before the election. The party held onto its support, and went on to become the second-largest party in the election.
Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one God, and that Muhammad is the messenger of God. It is the world's second-largest religion with over 1.8 billion followers or 24% of the world's population, most commonly known as Muslims. Muslims make up a majority of the population in 50 countries. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, unique and has guided humankind through prophets, revealed scriptures and natural signs. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the verbatim word of God, and the teachings and normative example of Muhammad.
Purple is a common term in politics for governments or other political entities consisting of parties that have red and blue as their political colours. It is of particular note in two areas: in the politics of the Netherlands and Belgium and in the politics of the United States.
Two months after the election, Jan Peter Balkenende formed his first cabinet in a coalition with the CDA, LPF and VVD. However, the LPF was unstable due to their lack of strong leadership and their members' lack of experience, resulting in the new cabinet resigning before the end of the year.
Jan Pieter "Jan Peter" Balkenende Jr. is a retired Dutch politician who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 July 2002 to 14 October 2010. He is a member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).
The First Balkenende cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 22 July 2002 until 27 May 2003. The cabinet was formed by the political parties Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) after the election of 2002. The right-wing cabinet was a majority government in the House of Representatives. It was the first of four cabinets of Jan Peter Balkenende, the Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal as Prime Minister, with Eduard Bomhoff and Roelf de Boer of the Pim Fortuyn List and Johan Remkes of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy serving as Deputy Prime Ministers.
Background
Prime Minister Wim Kok had been in power since the 1994 general election in a coalition between his Labour Party (PvdA), the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and Democrats 66 (D66). The government, which won a second term in the 1998 general election, was often referred to as a 'purple' coalition due to the participation of the 'red' Labour Party and the 'blue' VVD. During its time in power, the government had often enjoyed high approval ratings and presided over a strong economy.[3] They had also introduced innovative social legislation, such as the introduction of same-sex marriage and euthanasia. Kok announced in December 2001 that he would retire from the premiership at the next election. Ad Melkert then replaced Kok as the party leader. The Christian Democratic Appeal, the largest opposition party, was led by newly elected leader Jan Peter Balkenende. Balkenende was at the time considered to be an interim leader who lacked charisma or experience, but his campaign would ultimately prove relatively successful.[4]
Willem "Wim" Kok was a Dutch politician who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 August 1994 until 22 July 2002. He was a member of the Labour Party (PvdA).
The Labour Party is a social democratic political party in the Netherlands.
Campaign
At the start of the year, Melkert and the VVD leader Hans Dijkstal appeared to be the frontrunners in the race to become Prime Minister. The situation changed with the arrival of the controversial politician Pim Fortuyn. Fortuyn was a critic of Islam and had questioned whether its culture was compatible with Western society even before the September 11 attacks.[5] He was elected the leader of Liveable Netherlands in November 2001, but he was expelled from the party after making controversial comments in an interview with De Volkskrant on 9 February 2002. Fortuyn had described Islam as a "backward culture", criticizing its attitude to homosexuality (he himself was openly gay). Part of the reason for the uproar was that the Dutch word for "backward" (achterlijk) can also be used in an insulting sense (with a similar meaning to the word "retarded"); Fortuyn stated he used the word in the former sense. Two days later, he formed his own party, the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) in order to contest to the upcoming general election, while maintaining the leadership over the local Livable Rotterdam party.
Henri Frans "Hans" Dijkstal was a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).
The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda against the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The attacks killed 2,996 people, injured over 6,000 others, and caused at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage. Additional people died of 9/11-related cancer and respiratory diseases in the months and years following the attacks.
de Volkskrant is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000.
In the 2002 municipal elections, held on 6 March, Liveable Rotterdam took 35% of the vote in the city of Rotterdam, a city with a high immigrant population. They formed the city's first non-Labour government since the Second World War. In the same month, he released the book De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars (The Wreckage of eight purple years) criticising the record of the governing coalition. The Economist described the rise in support for Fortuyn as a shock for the Dutch political establishment and their traditional system of consensus.[6]
Rotterdam is the second-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands. It is located in the province of South Holland, at the mouth of the Nieuwe Maas channel leading into the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta at the North Sea. Its history goes back to 1270, when a dam was constructed in the Rotte, after which people settled around it for safety. In 1340, Rotterdam was granted city rights by the Count of Holland.
De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars is a political non-fiction book released by the Dutch political commentator and aspiring lawmaker Pim Fortuyn in 2002, two months prior to his assassination. In the book, Fortuyn sharply criticizes the then ruling "Purple" coalition government and its direct predecessor on nearly all areas of their policies.
The Economist is an English-language weekly magazine-format newspaper owned by the Economist Group and edited at offices in London. Continuous publication began under its founder James Wilson in September 1843. In 2015, its average weekly circulation was a little over 1.5 million, about half of which were sold in the United States. Pearson PLC held a 50% shareholding via The Financial Times Limited until August 2015. At that time, Pearson sold their share in the Economist. The Agnelli family's Exor paid £287m to raise their stake from 4.7% to 43.4% while the Economist paid £182m for the balance of 5.04m shares which will be distributed to current shareholders. Aside from the Agnelli family, smaller shareholders in the company include Cadbury, Rothschild (21%), Schroder, Layton and other family interests as well as a number of staff and former staff shareholders.
The government resigned on 16 April - only a month before polling day - after the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation published the Srebrenica: a 'safe' area report, criticizing the Dutch government's handling of the events that led to the Srebenica massacre in 1995.[7] However, the ministers remained in office as a caretaker government until after the elections and the formation of the next government, and the date of the election was not changed.
On 6 May, Fortuyn was assassinated in Hilversum by Volkert van der Graaf. Months later, Van der Graaf stated his motivation was his belief that Fortuyn was exploiting Muslims as "scapegoats" and targeting "the weak members of society" in seeking political power.[8] The murder was a shock to the Netherlands; it was denounced by Kok and other Dutch politicians and other national leaders. It was the country's first political assassination in modern times.[9]
The Christian Democratic Appeal was the surprising winner of the election, gaining 14 seats (from 29 to 43) and becoming the largest party in the House of Representatives. This success is in part owed to its new leader Jan Peter Balkenende, who went on to become prime minister, and to its neutral attitude in the debate with Fortuyn, not having participated in the supposed ‘demonization’ by the political Left.
Fortuyn's former party Livable Netherlands also contested the election. While they had been overshadowed by Fortuyn, they also entered the House of Representatives, winning 2 seats.
The 15 May 2002 election was the beginning of a year of political chaos in the Netherlands following the LPF leader's assassination on 6 May the same year. The power vacuum resulted in violent internal conflicts in LPF, which eventually led to the fall of the first Balkenende cabinet (CDA-LPF-VVD), which governed from 22 July 2002 to 16 October 2002. The CDA once again became a coalition party after eight years in opposition (1994–2002) in a government which, however, became the shortest-ruling Dutch cabinet since the Second World War, lasting less than five months.
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative liberal political party in the Netherlands.
The politics of the Netherlands take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, a constitutional monarchy and a decentralised unitary state. The Netherlands is described as a consociational state. Dutch politics and governance are characterised by a common striving for broad consensus on important issues, within both of the political community and society as a whole.
The Christian Democratic Appeal is a Christian-democratic political party in the Netherlands. The CDA was originally formed in 1977 from a confederation of the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolutionary Party and the Christian Historical Union, and has participated in all but three governments since then. Sybrand van Haersma Buma has been the Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal since 18 May 2012.
Democrats 66 is a social-liberal political party in the Netherlands. Its name originates from the year in which it was founded.
The Second Balkenende cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 27 May 2003 until 7 July 2006. The cabinet was formed by the political parties Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the Democrats 66 (D66) after the election of 2003. The centre-right cabinet was a majority government in the House of Representatives.
Wouter Jacob Bos (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʋʌutər ˈbɔs]; is a retired Dutch politician of the Labour Party and businessman. He is the designated CEO and Chairman for the government-owned Dutch Invest Agency taking office in 2019.
Livable Rotterdam is a local political party in the municipality of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, which was founded by Ronald Sørensen in 2001. It won the council elections of March 2002 due to the charismatic leadership of Pim Fortuyn. This made it the city's largest political party, a position which for the previous thirty years had been held by the Labour Party. Livable Rotterdam started as a spin-off of the national party Livable Netherlands but is commonly seen as the local party of the LPF, the national party of Pim Fortuyn which was founded just after Pim Fortuyn was fired as lijsttrekker of the Livable Netherlands party in spring 2002.
General elections were held in the Netherlands on 22 January 2003.
Adrianus Petrus Wilhelmus "Ad" Melkert is a Dutch politician and diplomat of the Labour Party (PvdA). He has been an Extraordinary Member of the Council of State since 20 January 2016.
This article lists some of the events that took place in the Netherlands in 2002.
General elections were held in the Netherlands on 22 November 2006 following the fall of the Second Balkenende cabinet. The elections proved relatively successful for the governing Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) which remained the largest party with 41 seats, a loss of only three seats. The largest increase in seats was for the Socialist Party (SP), which went from nine to 25 seats. The main opposition party, the social-democratic Labour Party (PvdA) lost nine of its 42 seats, while the right-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the progressive liberal Democrats 66 lost a considerable portion of their seats, six of 28 and three of six, respectively. New parties, such as the right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV) of former VVD MP Geert Wilders and the animal rights party Party for the Animals (PvdD) were also successful, with the PVV winning nine seats and the PvdD winning two, thereby becoming the first animal rights group to enter a European parliament.
↑ Fortuyn killed 'to protect Muslims', The Daily Telegraph, 28 March 2003:[van der Graaf] said his goal was to stop Fortuyn exploiting Muslims as "scapegoats" and targeting "the weak parts of society to score points" to try to gain political power.
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