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FPÖ: Drama about Hans-Jörg Jenewein – Inside Austria

2022-08-16T12:04:36.929Z


Austria's right-wing populists are rumbling: An anonymous complaint and the suicide attempt by Hans-Jörg Jenewein shake the FPÖ. Does party leader Herbert Kickl get into trouble?


It is part of the nature of the summer slump that journalists who are not on vacation at the moment have to plug it.

Usually with whimsical or offbeat stories in off-peak times.

But while Vienna groans under the August heat in 2022, the remaining newspaper editors in the Austrian capital are concerned with a topic that is not at all exhilarating: the alleged suicide attempt by FPÖ politician Hans-Jörg Jenewein.

And again it's also about quarrels among the "Blues", as the representatives of the right-wing populist Freedom Party in Austria are commonly called.

Jenewein left the FPÖ, presumably under pressure, at the beginning of August.

He was considered a close confidant of the rabid party leader Herbert Kickl.

Investigators from the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office (WKStA) are investigating the background to his attempted suicide.

»Intriguers« and »Snake Pit«

On Jenewein's computer they found a draft of a six-page anonymous complaint against leading representatives of the Viennese provincial party organization.

The ad was filed in October, Jenewein is considered the alleged author.

In essence, it is about the suspicion of illegal party financing by FPÖ-related donation associations.

It would take us too far afield to examine the Byzantine undergrowth of the Liberals in a few words.

In retrospect, the long-term chairman and former Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, who stumbled over the Ibiza affair, described the trench warfare in the party as a “heap of schemers” and a “pit of snakes”.

Good poll numbers despite internal struggles

There are battalions ready to fight, Viennese against Upper Austrians and Vorarlbergers, advocates of the common man against economic liberals, vaccination advocates against corona deniers.

Jenewein's sister, deputy FPÖ party leader Dagmar Belakowitsch, claimed at the peak of the pandemic that in Austria's hospitals it was not "the bad unvaccinated" who occupied the beds, but many "who had to be treated because of vaccination damage".

For the Liberals, the rumors about new affairs and internal party rifts come at the wrong time.

In September, hardliner Kickl, party leader and former speechwriter Jörg Haiders, is standing for re-election.

On October 9, Walter Rosenkranz will be in the running for the office of Federal President for the FPÖ – against Alexander Van der Bellen, who is now almost 79 years old and formerly chairman of the Greens.

In opinion polls, the FPÖ was just a few days ago, regardless of its Ibiza affair and other missteps, with 23 percent in second place - well ahead of the chancellor party ÖVP and their coalition partners, the Greens.

Kickl continues to score with voters with his decidedly corona-critical and xenophobic course.

In his own party, on the other hand, the sharp-tongued Carinthian is not without controversy.

The more backgrounds come to light in the Jenewein case, the more Kickl's own role should be examined.

In the end, was it he who wanted his confidant to settle open scores with his Viennese party comrades?

The ascetic Kickl, a passionate marathon runner, can be trusted to survive the current crisis and get the party back on track.

On September 7th, it will be exactly 20 years since the FPÖ in Knittelfeld, Styria, was thrown into its deepest crisis to date by an internal party putsch.

Kickl was already there back then.

He will hardly wish for a repeat.

Stories we recommend you today:

  • The upheavals surrounding the former FPÖ MP Hans-Jörg Jenewein could grow into a veritable crisis for party leader Herbert Kickl.

  • Wherever FPÖ politicians appear at the moment, they are confronted with one issue: the intrigues within the party.

    How to proceed now.  

Kind regards

Walter Mayr (Correspondent for Austria and Southeast Europe, DER SPIEGEL)

And once again a note on our own behalf: You can order this briefing as a newsletter to your e-mail inbox here.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-08-16

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