Austria's Freedom Party

[notaterran]

To the growing ranks of his supporters, Herbert Kickl, the chancellor candidate of the far-right Austrian Freedom Party, coolly diagnoses the country’s problems and offers reasonable solutions. To his detractors, the former interior minister is a dangerous right-wing extremist who trades in conspiracy theories.

Link

Will the strategy of "cordon sanitaire" work in Austria as it did in France and Germany? It seems there's no stopping the growth of anti-immigrant sentiment.

[EGO_Aut]

I bet they won't rule.
I don't think there will be a solution to the asyl/immigration conflict either in AUT or in Germany, France or the EU...

[chew-ie]

I don't think there will be a solution to the asyl/immigration conflict either in AUT or in Germany, France or the EU...

Doesn't stop the simpletons to promise it & other simpletons to fall for it. Guess we really need that fire to remind people how bad WW2 was for everyone.

[clakclak]

It is a bit insane that people still vote the party after the Ibiza scandel. Do Austrians really hate foreigners inside their country so much that they do not care if their country gets sold to Russia?

[Alerion_V.X3]

Yes, it's a real hair-raiser. But I've been asking myself that question for a long time. But I come from Germany, where things are currently moving in a similar direction, at least in the new federal states. I come from a conservative family and unfortunately I also have some far right-wing extremist relatives.

But I think that, here as there, the younger voters and their years of indoctrination and fear of the future were and are decisive. The problems are not only noticeable in Austria/Germany with the increasing moral neglect and ‘bad ass behaviour’. The focus on just one topic: asylum policy and the refusal to engage in democratic discourse. The fascist parties and their galleon figures have an all too easy game in fuelling the fire.

[EGO_Aut]

I don't think there will be a solution to the asyl/immigration conflict either in AUT or in Germany, France or the EU...

Doesn't stop the simpletons to promise it & other simpletons to fall for it. Guess we really need that fire to remind people how bad WW2 was for everyone.

What are you talking about WW2?
Muslim immigration and their unwillingness to adapt to the current rules are simply too much for the people. You promise a solution, you get votes.
Or do you think simple minded, a new Hitler will raise and Germany will conquer Poland and France These are two different pair of shoes.

[clakclak]

I don't think there will be a solution to the asyl/immigration conflict either in AUT or in Germany, France or the EU...

Doesn't stop the simpletons to promise it & other simpletons to fall for it. Guess we really need that fire to remind people how bad WW2 was for everyone.

What are you talking about WW2?
Muslim immigration and their unwillingness to adapt to the current rules are simply too much for the people. You promise a solution, you get votes.
Or do you think simple minded, a new Hitler will raise and Germany will conquer Poland and France These are two different pair of shoes.

You wonder why people are talking about World War 2, when Björn Hoecke, by profession a history teacher, was found guilty twice of using the slogan of the SA during his speeches? A slogan he allegedly did not know was associated with the Nazis. This slogan. He just won a major election. Meanwhile his colleague Gauland, who at the time was the party leader, said we should be proud of the achievements of German soldiers during World War 1 and 2.

But this is about the FPÖ in Austria so let's see what they are all about shall we?

Let's start with a quote from the FPÖ leader Kickl:

"We will not be able to agree that an association as such or a unit such as the Waffen-SS should be held collectively guilty." German: "Da werden wir uns nicht darauf verständigen können, dass ein Verein als solcher oder eine Einheit wie die Waffen-SS kollektiv schuldig zu sprechen ist."

Then let us look at some other interesting events in regards to the Nazi past:

28. September 2024: During the funeral of FPÖ Bezirksrat (no idea how to translate that) Walter Sucher FPÖ members are singing an SS funeral song.

14. April 2024: The public learns that Hans-Jörg Jenewein was in possesion of illegal ammunition and pictures that show "a clearly national socialist attitude" ("eindeutig nationalsozialistische Gesinnung erkennen lassen").

18. January 2022: FPÖ candidate Josef Gschwandegger says in an interview that the last book he read was Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler.

4. August 2020: Erwin Scherz FPÖ city council posts a picture of himself wearing a T-Shirt with the Reichsadler on it.


I could go on and on and on. Thankfully Wikipedia has a helpful list about of right-wing extremist and neo-Nazi incidents in the FPÖ, it is only in German, but googles translate feature is pretty good by now.

So to answer your initial question: Why are people bringing up WW2 when talking about the FPÖ and AfD? Because they constantly bring it up themselves and make it very clear that they think the Nazis were the good guys in that conflict. If someone wears Nazi attire, plays down Nazi crimes, regurgitates Nazi propaganda and constantly says racist stuff, then people will take issue with that. The AfD and FPÖ may find this hard to grasp, but most people actually do not like or idolize the Nazis like they do.

[EGO_Aut]

If these parties and their members are so evil and bad, why are they (mostly) not condemned and banned? According to your propaganda, there are many neo-Nazis, not just in the EU (especially D, AT). And at least in Germany and AT there are strict laws against it.

[clakclak]

If these parties and their members are so evil and bad, why are they (mostly) not condemned and banned? According to your propaganda, there are many neo-Nazis, not just in the EU (especially D, AT). And at least in Germany and AT there are strict laws against it.

So let us go over this in a two steps:

1) Just because you dislike a source, does not make it propagande. I quoted multiple sources you provided no critique of them. This is not a telegram group in which you can shout into an echo chamber and assume everyone is going to agree with you. Simply screeming "Propaganda!" or "Fake-News!" (or "Lügenpresse" if you prefer that) whenever someone says something you don't like does not work.

2) The AfD and FPÖ ARE being widely condemned constantly. Here is for example a map of the Anti-Afd demonstrations that happend ealier this year. Politicians, celebrities, people on the street, enourmous amounts of people are constantly condemning the AfD and FPÖ. Do you really not hear any of it? If everyone was in favour of these parties, why do they not get nearly 100% of the vote? As for why they are not banned yet that is a very complicated question that requires a lot more knowledge about German and Austrian law than I have as I did study law for a short time but not very successfully. So I am the wrong person to ask.

[Alerion_V.X3]

@clakclak: Cheers to your patience. But this is once again a clear case of people to whom you can provide as much verifiable evidence as you like and who still happily shrug their shoulders and dismiss everything that doesn't fit into their narrow world view as left-wing propaganda.

The evil Greens, knife-wielding foreigners and above all the woke rainbow flag-wavers and so on... jaddajadda

[fiksal]

You promise a solution, you get votes.

The reason for that is because fascism is easy and natural for people. It's easier to deport or put someone into a camp, hand wave anyone who doesn't fit the color palette, and call this done, a solution. It takes a lot more effort to compromise, build a society, live together.

This easy solution will always be attractive.

This has always been the case even before we started to call this a fascism.

[EGO_Aut]

If these parties and their members are so evil and bad, why are they (mostly) not condemned and banned? According to your propaganda, there are many neo-Nazis, not just in the EU (especially D, AT). And at least in Germany and AT there are strict laws against it.

....... As for why they are not banned yet that is a very complicated question that requires a lot more knowledge about German and Austrian law than I have as I did study law for a short time but not very successfully. So I am the wrong person to ask.

It's funny that you then immediately condemn people and parties as Nazis. No question, there are a few neo-Nazis in the right-wing parties. If they are guilty, they will be held responsible.
I can promise you, Germany and Austria have the strictest laws against nazi "Wiederbetätigung". Maybe this is one reason why you hear so much about it in the news.

Only AFD, FPÖ,... and the many other right-wing parties in the world are not elected because they are neo-Nazis. They promise things to get votes. And the people belive them, and do not thrust the rulers.
I belive, today it is impossible for a new Hitler to come to power, something like that is ridiculous.

Btw i did not vote them, but i know many ppl, most of them are common worker and unemployed ppl.
Edit:.......and the jung ppl >16 years

[CBJ]

It's such a shame that there are no history books that people could learn from.

[EGO_Aut]

It's such a shame that there are no history books that people could learn from.

Whether Sweden and Finland in the north, Poland and Hungary in the east or Italy and Spain in the south: right-wing populist and right-wing extremist parties have been growing stronger across Europe for years.

The mistake is to ridicule and ignore these parties, or to say
that they did not learn from history. There is a saying by Mohandas Ghandi: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win."

[Alerion_V.X3]

Unfortunately, most of the first-time voters (and as you can see here, probably not only these ) are hardly or not at all interested in history and actually also in politics, apart from the rather empty TikTok rubbish etc., on which the right-wing extremists and fascists are particularly active and very fond of travelling.

Successfully, as one must unfortunately admit. We, the unfortunately still mostly too silent and disinterested majority, have so far failed to realise this. And in Germany, the internet/digital media are unfortunately still ‘uncharted territory’ as once propagated by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In short: populism and incitement against minorities are spreading very quickly, especially in this day and age, and are taking root in people's minds faster than a six-pack of beer aka "Druckbetankung" in German. And the usual simple ‘final solutions’ of the fascists are simply, but not solutions. History repeats itself, but this time worldwide and the clumsy attempts to trivialise it don't really make it any better. But they're not supposed to - they're rather smug and ‘purposeful’

[clakclak]

Multiple high ranking German politicians have said that Germany might reconsider intelligence cooperation if the FPÖ becomes part of the government. To quote the relevant part:

“[…]

"If the FPÖ enters government, this would mean that Germany would also have to put its intelligence cooperation with Austria to the test," FDP parliamentary group deputy leader Konstantin Kuhle told the German newspaper Handelsblatt today.

The FPÖ is part of a Europe-wide network of Russia-friendly parties that are closer to the Kremlin than to the interests of the EU and its member states.

The chairman of the parliamentary control committee, Konstantin von Notz (Greens), agreed with Kuhle. "In times of a war of aggression in Europe in violation of international law and massive campaigns of influence and disinformation, also and above all from Russia, the FPÖ in government responsibility would certainly be a considerable security problem for Austrian authorities, but also for their partners," von Notz told the "Handelsblatt" newspaper.[…]”

Now to be fair, seeing just how our intelligence services have been working one has to wonder if it wouldn’t be more detrimental to the Russian war effort if Germany continues supplying information, but that is besides the point.

Source: https://orf.at/stories/3371652/

[CBJ]

The mistake is to ridicule and ignore these parties, or to say
that they did not learn from history.

That's exactly my point. You were dismissing the possibility of them getting into power, despite the fact that they are using the exact same playbook that got them into power before, and that the people joining those parties are doing so for the exact same reasons that they did before. If people don't wake up to this, it will happen again.

[chew-ie]

At the very least in this day and age NO ONE can say "I didn't knew" or "I only wanted them to expel immigrants" afterwards.

---

Honestly, I'm [already] tired about all this reasoning why it is okay to vote facists into power. Nothing excuses this and Germany of all countries is nothing were "the poor" or "the workers" are locked in "their place". I'm coming from a worker family and I made my way by real hardship and work. Arguing that voting facists will fix things just underlines what their voters aren't capable of: taking responsibility about their lives and connecting the dots that their situation is due to their actions / laziness.

The world is changing, no facist party is able to guarantee that the barbecue meat costs below 1 € or the cigarettes go back to 3.50 € / package or whatever their pipe dreams involve. And it certainly doesn't change the fact that all western countries need immigrants to adress their skills shortage. The german Michel just doesn't want to do certain jobs and we are getting a generation of younglings who have a very high entitlement about their jobs. (and RE the latter - Austria has the very same problem)

If we are talking about _REAL_ problems facist parties have no solutions. As those would involve difficult answers. Looking back to germany - everything the facists are doing is ratcatching, promising things they can't fullfil. Like that one guy Hannes Loth - promised that KITA and dogs are for free when he is in power. Reality check went not that well - he even had to increase the KITA fees.

[EGO_Aut]

Coalition talks between ÖVP and SPÖ (&NEOS) collapsed

It would be so important to send the ÖVP into opposition - unfortunately not possible.....the direction goes to the right wing, a coalition with the FPÖ.

I'm a little disappointed. I don't think the (%) muslim population will decline until I retire at the age of 80........./s

[EGO_Aut]

The drama is over. The ÖVP + SPÖ + NEOS are now in power. The right-wing FPÖ hasn't found anyone to govern with. It's a shame the problems will only get worse in the coming years, meaning even more votes for the right next time....