The greatest Dutchman ever...
2004-11-16 13:17
Amsterdam - Slain anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn was named in a poll as the "greatest" person in Dutch history, beating out teenage diarist Anne Frank and painters Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh.
The results of the monthlong contest were revealed on Monday, less than two weeks after the November 2 slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh - great-grand nephew of the painter - by an alleged Islamic radical, which raised a new storm of anti-immigrant sentiment in the Netherlands.
The telephone vote was announced at the end of a live programme on Dutch television broadcaster KRO, with viewers choosing from among 10 possible winners - narrowed down from a longer list in earlier rounds.
Fortuyn shattered taboos in Dutch politics in 2002 by saying that attempts to build a multicultural society were a failure and openly calling for an end to immigration. He was shot dead by an animal rights activist shortly before elections in which he might have been chosen prime minister, but his ideas have dominated Dutch public debate ever since.
Vincent van Gogh is 10th
Second place went to William of Orange, the 16th-century patriarch of the Dutch royal house and third to Willem Drees, the prime minister who helped rebuild the Netherlands after World War II.
Also on the list was Frank, a Jewish girl who hid from the Nazis in an attic in a canal house in Amsterdam for two years during World War II before someone betrayed her family and she was shipped off to die in a concentration camp. Her diaries were later found and published around the world, making her a symbol of the Jewish Holocaust.
Vincent van Gogh - who finished 10th in the voting - is now considered the embodiment of a tortured artist, was not appreciated during his lifetime and could not have imagined the renown his work would later gain when he committed suicide in 1890.
Rembrandt was a Renaissance master often considered the greatest painter of all time.
The only living figure in the top 10 was soccer player Johan Cruyff, a sublime striker often seen as Europe's best. He was also a successful coach and is known for his simple yet profound comments on the game, such as "you can't win without the ball," and "every disadvantage has its advantage."
Also on the list were medieval philosopher Desiderius Erasmus, best known for his translation of the New Testament and for the satire In Praise of Folly; Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, one of the first scientists to study cells; and Michiel de Ruyter, the Netherlands' greatest admiral during its Golden Age.
In a similar vote conducted by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 2002, Winston Churchill, the resolute prime minister who led the country to victory in World War II, was named the greatest Briton of all time.
- AP