Pim Fortuyn, a politician from the Netherlands who was assassinated in 2002
On 15 April 2003, Volkert van der Graaf was convicted of assassinating Fortuyn and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
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Fortuyn was 54 years old when he was assassinated by Volkert van der Graaf in a car park outside a radio studio where Fortuyn had just given an interview to Ruud de Wild at 3FM.
After a heated campaign a mere days before the election, Fortuyn was assassinated in Hilversum.
Nawijn also participated in the Zoetermeer 2006 city council elections and won five seats under the name Lijst Hilbrand Nawijn, but like Leefbaar Rotterdam and the Pim Fortuyn List both led by Pim Fortuyn in the 2002 elections, these are separate entities.
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 social democrat, and Democratic U.S. president John F. Kennedy.
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In 2004, in a TV show, Fortuyn was chosen as De Grootste Nederlander ("Greatest Dutchman of all-time"), followed closely by William of Orange, the leader of the independence war that established the precursor to the present-day Netherlands.
He drove towards Hilversum, knowing that Fortuyn was due to be interviewed in the radio studio of 3FM in the Media Park.