Far Right in Europe - Fortuyn favoured depraved: PIM Fortuyn, the charismatic right-wing Dutch politician murdered last week was a powerful advocate or paedophilia, Scotland on Sunday can reveal. His controversial views on race, immigration, liberalisation of drug laws and his open homosexuality were well-known. But his approval of paedophilia, while not a secret, was ignored by Dutch journalists covering his election campaign. [...] In his article, Fortuyn wrote: "Paedophilia is just like hetero and homosexuality. It is something that is in the genes. There is little if anything that you can do about it or against it. You are who you are… sooner or later the proclivity makes its irresistible appearance. It is not any more curable than hetero or homosexuality. [...] After the invention of the Pill came sexual liberation. Gay sex became accepted, and why then should paedo sex not be allowed – under the strict condition that the child is willing and that there is no coercion? This enlightened point of view has meanwhile been abandoned, and under the influence of the ologists, the child is defined as totally devoid of sexual desires, at least where adults are concerned."

Yet more evidence that the Netherlands are very very VERY different. I cannot imagine a serious candidate for American or British national office publicly making such statements, let alone in print. And if they had made such statements in print, their opponents would be hammering them into the ground with those views; every speech, every campaign statement would have in it somewhere "Oh, and Fortuyn is in favor of kiddie sex."

The fact that such a statement is somewhat incomplete would not bother them in the least. It wouldn't matter that his views were based on his experiences (and just imagine what the fundies would do with a boy who was seduced into sex by a man and then later turned out to be gay). It wouldn't matter that he's not saying "Kiddie sex! Yay!" A person holding the view that the sexuality of children as it relates to the law should be a topic for discussion would simply never be able to hold public office in this country.

I wonder how powerful an advocate of a position he could possibly be if most people didn't know what his position actually was?

Purely as an aside, I do find it remarkable that Scotland on Sunday can clump together Fortuyn's views on various topics, stick them in an article that comes within legal inches of calling him a pedophile, and then still call him Far Right.