Freedom Party ‘infiltrated by identitarian movement’
AUSTRIA’S MAUTHAUSEN Committee, which promotes human rights and democracy, has warned that the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) is being infiltrated by members of the extremist identitarian movement, writes Liam Hoare.
The warning came after two identitarian activists were elected to leadership positions in the party’s youth movement in Salzburg, a year after the FPÖ pledged to exclude members of the identitarian movement from the party’s ranks.
FPÖ leader Norbert Hofer has sought to reform the party, refashioning it as a “modern, right-wing conservative party without a far-right lunatic fringe”, but the party remains divided.
“The FPÖ is the farright lunatic fringe”, Mauthausen Committee Willi Mernyi said, cautioning other parties in Austria to distance themselves from the FPÖ. Mr Hofer said the party’s policy regarding members of the nativist, anti-immigrant, and anti-Islamic identitarian movement — known for their street protests and publicity-grabbing stunts — has not changed.
Yet FPÖ general secretary Michael Schnedlitz said on 30 November that the era of the party distancing itself from identitarians was “definitively over”, sparking condemnation across the political spectrum.
Martin Engelberg, an MP for the centre-right People’s Party, called on Mr Schnedlitz to resign following his “declaration of love” for the identitarians.
Only then could the FPÖ’s policy of distancing itself from the identitarians seem believable, Mr Engelberg said.
The FPO is the far-right lunatic fringe’