Back More
Salem Press

Table of Contents

See Also

See Also in
Notorious Lives

Roy Cohn

Byron Looper

Dan White.

Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives

Volkert van der Graaf

by Rebecca Lovell Scott

Dutch animal rights activist

Major offenses: Premeditated murder in the assassination of right-wing politician Pim Fortuyn, illegal weapons possession, and threatening a man’s life

Active: May 6, 2002

Locale: Hilversum, Netherlands

Sentence: Eighteen years in prison

Early Life

Volkert van der Graaf (FOLK-urt fahn duhr KRAF) was the second child of a Dutch father and a British mother. In a 2000 interview with nonprofit organization Animal Freedom, he discussed being committed to animal rights from an early age. For example, participating at age fifteen in the rescue of seabirds following a major oil spill in Zeeland made an enormous impression on him. He was upset by the “slow and horrible way” that the birds died. While a student in environmental studies at the University of Wageningen, he was active in the Inter-University Coalition on Animal Use and a member of an activist animal rights group, but no evidence ties him to illegal activities.

In 1992, van der Graaf cofounded the Vereniging Milieu-Offensief (VMO, translated as environmental offensive), dedicated to fighting bioindustry using the law. With VMO, he challenged land developers before planning boards and brought charges against farmers who were violating environmental regulations. VMO’s Web site claimed winning about two-thirds of more than two thousand legal cases.

Criminal Career

The year before his murder of politician Pim Fortuyn, van der Graaf, his girlfriend, and their baby moved to Harderwijk, in the Dutch “Bible belt.” No evidence suggests that he was particularly religious, although court-appointed psychiatrists characterized him as rigidly moralistic. After the murder, colleagues at the VMO described him as “overstressed” following his baby’s birth but were otherwise unable to explain his act.

Speculation in the press suggested that van der Graaf was upset by Fortuyn’s claim that he would lift bans on breeding animals for fur and by his contempt for environmental movements. Fortuyn had also recently added the head of the national pig farmers’ association to his party’s candidates. At VMO, van der Graaf had filed many complaints against this particular man.

On May 6, 2002, nine days before the national elections, van der Graaf shot Fortuyn to death as the politician left a radio interview. Polls suggested that Fortuyn was on track to become prime minister. Van der Graaf was arrested within minutes of the shooting, thanks to bystanders who alerted police by cell phone. He had the gun in his pocket at the time of the arrest. Evidence gathered by the police included a printout of Fortuyn’s schedule from his party’s Web site, maps of the media complex, and addresses of other ranking officials in the party. Although conspiracy theories abounded, including one tying van der Graaf to the terrorist group al-Qaeda, the police found no evidence to support such claims.

Legal Action and Outcome

Van der Graaf initially refused to make any statement, but in November the public ministry announced that van der Graaf had confessed to the murder. Following a court-ordered, seven-week period of psychiatric observation, he was tried for premeditated murder, illegal weapons possession, and threatening a man’s life. The trial took place in Amsterdam-Osdorp’s high-security court known as the Bunker in early spring, 2003.

Psychiatric evaluation found van der Graaf fully competent to stand trial despite having obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Van der Graaf confessed in court, saying he shot Fortuyn to defend Dutch Muslims from persecution. He equated Fortuyn’s rise with that of Adolf Hitler in the 1930’s but expressed remorse for taking a life.

He was convicted on all counts and sentenced to eighteen years in prison. Under Dutch law, he had to serve a minimum of twelve years. The prosecution appealed the sentence, requesting a life term, but on July 18, 2003, the court resentenced him to eighteen years, stating that the threat to democracy was not serious enough to justify lifelong imprisonment.

Impact

The Dutch have a long tradition of tolerance, consensus politics, coalition governments, and political stability. Pim Fortuyn was an outspoken, confrontational, anti-immigration, and conservative populist. The rapid rise of his political party and his subsequent assassination, the first in modern Dutch history, disrupted this political and social consensus. Fortuyn’s influence brought concerns about immigration into public discussion. As a result, most Dutch political parties have taken a much tougher stance against immigration than before Fortuyn’s murder at the hands of Volkert van der Graaf.

Further Reading

1 

Amir, Abedi. Political Establishment Parties: A Comparative Analysis. London: Taylor & Francis, 2003. An examination of how extremist political parties, such as Fortuyn’s Lijst, can rise in popularity and power in traditionally tolerant countries.

2 

Andeweg, Rudy B., and Galen A. Irwin. Governance and Politics of the Netherlands. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2005. An analysis of how the assassination of Fortuyn could happen in a country dedicated to political consensus and stability.

Citation Types

MLA 9th
Scott, Rebecca Lovell. "Volkert Van Der Graaf." Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives, edited by Carl L. Bankston III, Salem Press, 2007. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GLN_1590.
APA 7th
Scott, R. L. (2007). Volkert van der Graaf. In C. L. Bankston III (Ed.), Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Scott, Rebecca Lovell. "Volkert Van Der Graaf." Edited by Carl L. Bankston III. Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2007. Accessed September 17, 2026. online.salempress.com.