De Puinhopen Van Acht Jaar Paars

''De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars'' (, English: ') is a political non-fiction book released by the Dutch political commentator and aspiring lawmaker Pim Fortuyn in 2002, two months prior to his assassination. In the book, Fortuyn sharply criticizes the then ruling "Purple" coalition government and its direct predecessor (both composed of PvdA, VVD and D66) on nearly all areas of their policies.

The book went on to become the first and only bestseller for Fortuyn, whose previous writing career had not yielded any great successes. ''Puinhopen'' was reprinted more than nine times, and had sold 270,000 copies by its tenth anniversary in 2012.

''De puinhopen van acht jaar paars'' was termed by many Dutch media, as well as by Fortuyn himself, the official election manifesto of the Pim Fortuyn List (of which Fortuyn was the founder and ''lijsttrekker''), but Fortuyn later retracted these claims.

History

In August 2001, Pim Fortuyn declared he was going to enter national politics. Although at that time he had not yet aligned himself with the recently founded Livable Netherlands, he did express his intention to release a book later on that year which would be titled ''Acht jaar wachtlijsten'' (''Eight years of waiting lists'') and would reflect on the two consecutive Purple administrations. When Livable Netherlands asked him to be their ''lijsttrekker'', Fortuyn declared that their electoral manifesto had to be in line with his upcoming book.

''Acht jaar wachtlijsten'' was at first to be released by the formerly Marxist publisher Van Gennep, which had also published a previous work by Fortuyn. However, Van Gennep parted ways with Fortuyn in November 2001 when the latter became close to confirmation as ''lijsttrekker'' of Livable Netherlands, citing the incompatibility between their Marxist roots and the party's political positions. Karakter B.V., an imprint of Uithoorn, was announced as taking over as publisher.

After Fortuyn and Livable Netherlands ended their cooperation, Fortuyn founded his own party called the "Pim Fortuyn List". Whenever he was asked what his new party's policies were going to be, Fortuyn generally referred to his soon to be published book by way of answer.

In February 2002, Fortuyn reported to '' de Volkskrant'' that this book was now to be called ''De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars''. On this occasion, he also said that his rationale for authoring it was the perceived laziness of the Dutch media. "As you may know, the press is too lazy to read anyway. So I have summarized my thirteen books in ''De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars''," Fortuyn was quoted as saying.

Synopsis

''De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars'' is divided into ten chapters (including an epilogue). Each of these chapters addresses one aspect of the Purple government's policies that, in Fortuyn's view, required "unreserved criticism". The chapters are titled ''politics'' (this chapter also serves as an introduction to the rest of the book), ''healthcare'', ''education'', ''security'', ''restyling of the welfare state'', ''agriculture and infrastructure'', ''public government'', ''immigration policy'', and ''foreign affairs''.

Publication

Release of the book was planned for March 14, but it was accidentally available two days earlier because the publisher failed to instruct book shops about the embargo for the intended date. In many stores, the book sold out on March 12, and the initial printing of 10,000 was already almost exhausted by March 13; a second printing, again of 10,000 copies, had already been ordered one day prior.

Fortuyn's assassination on May 6 helped to augment the sales of ''Puinhopen'' even further. Between May 6 and May 16, 2002, Karakter had to order three new printings together consisting of over 25,000 copies, bringing total circulation up until that point to 125,000.

The book went on to become one of the biggest commercial hits of the Dutch book trade in 2002, selling over 150,000 copies in the year of its release alone. That year ''De puinhopen van acht jaar paars'' was the best-selling non-fiction book in the Netherlands, the third overall best-selling book (after Nicci French's '' Land of the Living'' and Donna Tartt's ''The Little Friend''), and the best-selling book by a Dutch author.

Sales of ''De puinhopen van acht jaar paars'' fell off in the summer of 2002. However, in May 2003, coinciding with the first commemoration of Fortuyn's death, ''Puinhopen'' saw a small sales figure jump, with book stores purchasing "hundreds" of copies to sell to their customers.

In the run-up to the tenth commemoration of Fortuyn's death in 2012, Karakter announced the total sales of ''Puinhopen'' to be 270,000. On May 14 of that year, an e-book version of the book was released.

Pieing incident

On March 14, Fortuyn officially presented ''De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars'' in the political society Nieuwspoort (News gate) in The Hague. The event garnered massive press attendance as Fortuyn had become a major agenda setter. During the conference, Fortuyn was pied by members of the ''Biologische bakkers Brigade'' (literally: "biological bakers' brigade"), a radical left-wing movement who claimed that Fortuyn's racism should not be given a voice, as well as wishing Fortuyn's party to receive zero seats in the upcoming elections. On her way out of Nieuwspoort, one of the perpetrators claimed she attacked Fortuyn with a pie because she felt what she referred to as Fortuyn's racism was not a matter of opinion, but should be treated as a felony.

After this incident, Fortuyn began expressing fear of being murdered. After resumption of the event he scolded prime minister Wim Kok