Meredith Lemke '23: Opinion: Dangerous Rhetoric in Austria from the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs
Over the past few decades, far-right nationalist parties have gained popularity and political sway in member nations of the European Union. In Austria, this trend is characterized by the tumultuous popularity of the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ), the Freedom Party of Austria.
The FPÖ was founded in 1956 as a nationalist, conservative, populist party. The party’s inaugural leader Anton Reinthaller (1956-1958), and his successor Friedrich Peter (1958-1978), were both former SS officers, solidifying the integral nature of Nazi ideologies within the party. After the FPÖ was founded, it was the third-largest party in Austria. The party’s platform briefly veered towards the center in the 1970s and 1980s. However, since 1986, the platform has remained firmly far-right, anti-elite, and populist. In recent decades, the FPÖ has maintained significant power within the Austrian Parliament (Meret 2010, p.186). In 1999, the FPÖ gained its largest political victory, winning 26.9% of the vote and becoming the second most popular party behind only the Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP), the Austrian People’s Party.
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In early 2000, the FPÖ formed a coalition government with the ÖVP, triggering a strong oppositional response from the European Union. The European Union threatened to severely limit Austrian influence if Jörg Haider, leader of the FPÖ and the son of Austrian Nazi Party members, became Chancellor of Austria. This effectively blocked Haider from the chancellorship, caused a brief splintering effect within the FPÖ, and decreased party influence.
However, by 2017, the party-base reunified and restrengthened. The FPÖ won 26% of the vote and once again formed a coalition with the ÖVP. Heinz-Christian Strache, the FPÖ party leader in 2017, became Vice-Chancellor of Austria, only to resign in 2019 due to a treasonous scandal dubbed the “Ibiza affair” in which Strache and Johann Gudenus were accused of collusion with a woman posing as the niece of a Russian businessman, to provide the FPÖ with positive press coverage. This triggered a collapse of the Austrian government coalition, a vote of no confidence, and a snap election in September 2019. The FPÖ lost serious ground in that snap election, winning just 16% of the vote. Today, under the leadership of the new Chairman Norbert Hofer, the party is attempting to rebuild national support and trust.
In order to regain populist support and parliamentary power, the FPÖ has doubled down on its use of anti-immigration rhetoric, xenophobic advertisements, and Islamophobic fear-mongering. These tactics are clearly shown in this inflammatory FPÖ-Vienna billboard campaign, released August 28, 2020, in preparation for Vienna’s October election.
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To the right of the image, Dominik Nepp, the leader of the FPÖ in Vienna, is pictured smiling at an idyllic, sunny representation of Vienna, with the St. Stephen’s cathedral in the background. The slogan “UNSER DAHAM!” translates from the Austrian-German dialect to mean “Our home!” To the left of the image, a group of faceless people in burkas stand in front of a framed picture of an armed Islamic terrorist. Outside of the window, the St. Stephen’s cathedral is marred by a red crescent moon, and the apostolic cross on top of the southern tower has been replaced by a crescent moon as well. The subtitle “SPÖ, ÖVP & GRÜNE: RADIKALER ISLAM” connects the Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs (Social Democratic Party of Austria), the Österreichische Volkspartei (Austrian People’s Party), and Die Grünen (The Greens/The Green Alternative) to “radical Islam.” This advertisement graphically depicts the threat of “Islamierung” or the “Islamification” of Vienna. Unfortunately, this is a common xenophobic, Islamophobic talking point, which the FPÖ—as well as other far-right populist movements in Europe—have used to oppose immigration and demonize refugees. This is not the first time that the FPÖ has used such a campaign. A 2006 campaign touted the slogan “Daham statt Islam,” translating to “Home instead of Islam.” Through these campaigns, the FPÖ has demonstrated a willingness to unjustly demonize Islam and appeal to xenophobic sentiments to gain political clout. This rhetoric is alarming, as it portrays Muslim people as inherently threatening to a white, conservative image of Vienna. The reduction of diverse, marginalized communities to a general Islamic “threat” inherently begs the question, who will defend Vienna from this threat? How? This is the dangerous rabbithole of agitative propaganda. That is why Nicole Tripes started a petition to rid Vienna’s streets of this campaign.
Over 4,000 people have signed Nicole Tripes’ petition “Keine rechte Propaganda auf Wiens Strassen!” - translated, “No right-wing propaganda on Vienna’s streets!” The petition is directed at FPÖ, Gewista, City of Vienna, on the website openPetition.eu. It calls for all billboards bearing this campaign to be replaced by a political advertisement with less misanthropic, xenophobic imagery. Tripes argues that such hateful propaganda must not be normalized on the streets of Vienna. She promoted this petition through an Instagram post which criticizes the campaign and compares its imagery to Nazi propaganda from 1940. Tripes argues that this billboard campaign is purposefully agitative in a way that resembles the provocative intentions of Adolf Hitler’s nationalist propaganda. In a country where such a far-right, populist party has gained and maintained a large parliamentary influence, it is heartening to see grassroots resistances, such as Nicole Tripes’ petition, against the dangerous, inflammatory, Islamophobic rhetoric of the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs. It is clear, however, that much more anti-racist and religiously tolerant work must be done in Austria, in order to permanently shake the FPÖ’s influence from the Austrian Parliament.
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