DUTCH far-right leader Pim Fortuyn, said to have been assassinated by a disgruntled animal rights activist, is to be buried in Italy, a British newspaper reported Wednesday.
Fortuyn ordered in his will that he be buried in a small village near Venice, northern Italy, where he had a holiday home, The Times said.
Bruno Ambrosio, a stonemason and friend of the 54-year-old politician gunned down on Monday, told the daily he was sculpting Fortuyn’s tombstone which was to stand in the village of Provesano di San Giorgio della Richinvelda.
”He wanted something simple, in black and white marble ? no bust or statue on it — just an inscription with his name and his dates of birth and death,” said Ambrosio.
”He was a simple man, very straightforward, just like the people round here.”
Fortuyn was shot in broad daylight in the central Dutch city of Hilversum as he was about to step into a limousine after appearing on a radio show.
A new star on the Dutch political scene, the openly gay and dandyish politician last March propelled his month-old far-right group from nowhere to win more than a third of the seats on Rotterdam’s city council.
His killing came ahead of general elections next week, in which Fortuyn’s anti-immigrant party had been expected to fare well. ? Sapa-AFP