An Amsterdam court will decide soon whether to order a new investigation into the murder of populist politician Pim Fortuyn who was shot dead five years ago by an animal rights activist.

Bodyguard and former policeman Christan Boom has asked the court for a new investigation, claiming that politicians and civil servants were criminally negligent because they failed to take Fortuyn’s security seriously.
Boom told the Telegraaf he disputes the findings of a previous inquiry into the murder which ruled that bodyguards would not have prevented the murder. Fortuyn was shot dead as he left a radio studio in Hilversum.
Several hundred people took part in a memorial march from Fortuyn’s home in Rotterdam on Sunday, the fifth anniversary of his murder.
The commemorations coincided with the publication of an opinion poll by the Telegraaf which shows that some 25% of the population would vote for Fortuyn if he was alive today. Over half of those polled said Fortuyn had changed the face of Dutch politics.
Almost half (49%) said he was most famous for his views on cutting government red tape while 29% said he was best well-known for his calls to limit asylum seeker numbers. However, 38% said anti-Muslim MP Geert Wilders is the best representative of Fortuyn’s views today.
Fortuyn was shot nine days before the general election. The party he founded, the LPF, went on to take 26 seats in parliament and was part of the coalition government. The government collapsed a year later and the LPF won eight seats in the subsequent election. Last year, it took none.