Sebastian Kurz is seen by many as a role model for successful conservatism.
But until 2019 he ruled with the FPÖ.
This is now causing another right-wing extremism scandal in Austria.
Vienna - The
right-wing populist FPÖ
has once again produced a potentially telling scandal in Austria.
According to media reports,
General Secretary Michael Schnedlitz
announced an
end to the “distancing”
- and obviously meant his party's relationship to the
right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement
.
In a ludicrous way, Schnedlitz also resorted to a comparison with Nazi times.
Sebastian Kurz's former coalition partner causes a scandal: “Distancing yourself” from identities is a thing of the past?
In an interview with the right-wing magazine
Info Direkt
Schnedlitz spoke of a "mistake" that the FPÖ had made in the
government coalition with Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz
(ÖVP).
His party believed, “we have to distance ourselves from Sebastian Kurz when he calls.
This distancing is now definitely over! "
The clear announcement was made in connection with the debate about a young person with
alleged contacts to the Identitarian Movement
, who sits on the board of the FPÖ youth in Salzburg.
"I no longer put up with the fact that the ÖVP or any journalists, Austrian citizens with impeccable repute," said Schnedlitz.
Norbert Hofer & HC Strache supposedly wanted nothing more to do with the right-wing extremist identities.
There was even a ban on working in the FPÖ.
“But this distancing is definitely over now,” says the FPÖ General Secretary.
https://t.co/rbGKjQUbcK
- Armin Wolf (@ArminWolf) November 30, 2020
“That hasn't happened since the 1930s,” added Schnedlitz.
Another suffix also sounded at least misleading.
“There are no first and second class people”, he emphasized and added: “From the Austrian citizens”.
The only red line is "criminal law".
In Germany, too, irritating comparisons with the time of the Nazi crimes have recently been booming.
FPÖ: Austrian right-wing populists on a nasty course - "Sheepskin shed and stopped eating chalk"
The
party leadership
rowed back a little later.
"Nothing has changed in the decision-making process," said
FPÖ boss Norbert Hofer of
the Austrian news agency
APA
.
The party had decided on a membership ban for identities.
According to a report by ORF, Hofer also put the rule into perspective in the broadcaster's “press round”: “Even someone who is with the SPÖ cannot be a member of us.”
Schnedlitz
himself later stated that he had been misunderstood - he had only want to allude to the specific case of the 17-year-old from Salzburg.
The
reactions to the statements were
nevertheless clear.
“The FPÖ has taken off sheep's clothing and stopped eating chalk.
This officially reunites what was never really separated, ”said
SPÖ managing director Christian Deutsch
.
Kurz 'ÖVP arranged
the events in the FPÖ
somewhat differently
- as a new development.
The ex-coalition partner is doing an "incredible U-turn in dealing with the right-wing extremist group," said
General Secretary Axel Melchior,
according to a report in the
Kronen Zeitung
.
Hofer has his party "no longer under control." The ÖVP and FPÖ formed a government alliance from 2017 to the 2019 Ibiza affair.
There was also criticism from Germany.
“The Austrian sister party of the nationalist AfD is now open to joining forces with the right-wing extremist identity movement,” wrote the
prominent CDU politician Ruprecht Polenz
on Twitter.
(
fn
)