Der Standard, September 19, 2017
German original: https://derstandard.at/2000064309750/FPOe-im-Burgenland-Neuer-rechter-Einzelfall
A man running for office for the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) in Draßburg has been attracting attention through right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic statements for thirty years. The party claims to have been unaware.
Eisenstadt/ Vienna – The FPÖ Burgenland does not come to rest. Again and again, „isolated cases,“ as the party likes to term operatives and partisans who act in a right-wing extremist manner, have come to light. While pertinent activities of FP – candidates for the local election on October 1 in the counties of Bruckneudorf-Kaisersteinruch and St. Andrä were recently made public, it is now one man, who runs for office in Draßburg (in the district of Mattersburg). Both old and recent Facebook posts of a hefty nature were brought to Der Standard’s attention.
At full steam to Auschwitz
The man has had brushes with the law over the past 30 years because of rabble-rousing statements. While he was mostly agitating against Jews at first, he recently has included Muslims and refugees in general. A few years ago it was a picture showing a train full of young, foreign-looking men, under which a sentence read “with full steam ahead to Ausschwitz“ (sic!), while he posted a list of humanitarian organizations, including Amnesty International or catholic youth organizations earlier this year: „the list of this left-left filthy trash has been copied and archived... will be kept for DAY X...“ Anti-Semitic world conspiracy theories are also often part of it. The Jewish family Rothschild, according to his postings, governs the world, while Muslims have to be banished.
Hitler – Plane
Among the videos liked by him on YouTube is a not so thrilling, five-minute animated film showing a plane with a swastika, Hitler’s face and the label „Heil Hitler“ taking off, flying and landing.
„He has become much calmer these days, not like before,“ says the social-democratic mayor of Draßburg, Christoph Haider, upon request by Der Standard: „you can talk with him normally when you meet at the coffee shop, but he is known in our community for having a right-wing twist.”
The FPÖ Draßburg’s local chair, René Tschögl, said during a conversation with Der Standard he did not know what the man says or posts. „I do have a Facebook account but I never log on. I will definitely confront him about it.“ Should the man be elected to the county council, Tschögl would „influence him not to accept the mandate.“
State party manager knew nothing
The FPÖ state party manager, Christian Riess, said upon request by Der Standard that he personally did not know about the views of the man. Like in other cases it is now too late to remove him from the ballot. Asked on Tuesday afternoon if the party would influence him not to accept a possible mandate, Riess said „I would support that, but we have not reached him yet.“ (Colette M. Schmidt).