Akademik

   Political party founded by Pim Fortuijn, who did not witness its first results because he was murdered shortly before the elections in May 2002. After these elections, the LPF formed a coalition with the Christian Democrats of the Christen Democratisch Appel (CDA)and the lib eral Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD). The party turned out to be highly unstable as a result of power struggles and quarrels about the interpretation of Fortuijn’s ideas. Mathieu (“Mat”) Herben (1952– ) appeared to be the new party leader every so often. After the 2003 elections, the party dropped from 26 to 8 members in Parliament, and after the 2006 elections the LPF did not even return within the Second Chamber.