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American Morning

World Watches After Dutch Elections Marred By Killing

Aired May 10, 2002 - 07:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: You will no doubt recall the queen and the streaker story we told you about earlier this week. Apparently, we didn't see everything, which may be just as well.

However, our man over there in London sees all, knows all and on Fridays, he tells all. Richard Quest -- good morning to you and happy Friday, sir.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A very happy Friday to you, Jack. I have for you today the tragic, the happy ending and the downright bizarre.

Let's start with the tragic, and it concerns the death, the assassination, the killing of a right-wing politician in The Netherlands. Now, this is an extraordinary case. It concerns Pim Fortuyn, who was a right-wing politician. The Netherlands is due to go to the polls later this week. And he was basically gunned down in the street in Holland.

Why this was extraordinary was because he was right-wing, he was himself gay and he was actually -- had a huge amount of support. What we have been learning about politics in The Netherlands in the last week is that his policies were anti-immigration. He was anti-Muslim in many cases. And he was garnering an enormous amount of support.

Now, he has been assassinated. What everybody is looking at is to see whether Dutch voters, when they go to the polls, will actually take this far-right turn.

So that was very much big news across the continent, because of course, it followed on from the other -- it followed on from the election in France, where the other right-wing candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen. So that's the tragic side of the week that we have been covering and we've all been talking about in Europe.

The happy side, or at least the happy ending was the baby who was snatched -- she was one of twins, and she was snatched from the maternity unit of a local hospital. Basically what a teenager did was walk into the hospital and walk out with a baby. A teenager was arrested.

Now, why this is particularly interesting, Jack, is that several years ago, the rules were supposed to be tightened to prevent exactly this sort of thing from happening. It didn't happen, and journalists across the country have been going in and out of hospitals pretending to be parents, not walking out with babies, but just proving that, of course, it can be done.

The bizarre, one was not amused, Mr. Cafferty, at least according to her majesty. Look, if you -- this could disturb your breakfast. Be careful, be very careful. This was the man who decided to streak in front of the queen. All right? Now, look, just to make it clear, that's the queen, that's the streaker. Remember: queen, streaker, just in case you are getting a little bit confused.

He ran for 50 yards next to the queen's car. She was apparently not amused. Prince Philip thought it was all a great hoot. But this is the best thing (ph). He was then rugby tackled. Now, imagine being rugby tackled by police officers, thrown over the barrier, thrown onto the floor with your privates, and I don't mean the police officers, on the concrete.

CAFFERTY: Did he have something tattooed on his rear end?

QUEST: He did. He had -- you know, the phrase, "Rule Britannia?" "Rule, Britannia! Brittania, rule the waves."

CAFFERTY: Yes, of course.

QUEST: Well, instead he had, "Rude Brittania" right across his posterior. By royal appointment, we are not amused.

CAFFERTY: All right. Well, we are on this side of the pond. We think you Brits are hilarious. Thank you, Richard -- Richard Quest live from our London bureau.

QUEST: Thank you very much.

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