May 6, 2002 Posted: 1700 GMT
Fortuyn has sparked controversy in The Netherlands with his far-right views
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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (CNN) -- Maverick Dutch right-wing politician Pim Fortuyn has been shot and critically wounded.
Fortuyn was shot in the head three times as he was going to a Dutch national radio station in Hilversum, the Associated Press reported.
A spokesman for Fortuyn's Leefbaar Nederland (Livable Netherlands) said he was not expected to survive the attack.
No information was immediately available about the assailant or whether the attacker was arrested.
Dutch television said Fortuyn, who was notorious for his anti-immigration and anti-Islamic views, was shot at close range.
"I saw Pim Fortuyn lying on the ground with a bullet wound in his head," said television reporter Dave Abspoel.
Fortuyn's rise mirrors a right-wing resurgence in several European countries, lately highlighted by the anti-immigrant Jean Marie Le Pen's surprise showing in the first round of French presidential elections. He was soundly defeated in Sunday's run-off vote by incumbent Jacques Chirac.
Fortuyn's platform seemed out of place in the Netherlands, which has a reputation for liberalism.
It was the first country to legalise gay marriages, regulate prostitution, approve and control euthanasia, and tolerate the over-the-counter sale of marijuana in hundreds of "coffee shops."
Though tolerant of such subcultures, Fortuyn's popularity has exposed a deep vein of suspicion of immigrants in Europe's most densely populated country, about two million of whose 16 million people are not native Dutch. About 800,000 are Muslims.
He was founder of Leefbaar Nederland, which stunned the Netherlands in March when it won 35 percent of the vote for city council seats in Rotterdam, the second-largest city, The Associated Press reports.
Fortuyn advocates a ban on immigration and has criticised Islam as a "backward culture."
Although he no longer leads the party, polls project that it could win 24 seats in the 150-member parliament in May 15 national elections.
CNN
