Freedom Party of Austria

We've seen JD Vance come to the Munich, uh, Security conference also mingling within German politics in an unprecedented way, saying basically, "We support the AfD.

The entire US administration supports the AfD." Uh, we have seen, uh, conferences, uh, in Hungary back in the days when Orbán was still the leader of Hungary with, uh, Geert Wilders from Holland, with the FPÖ from Austria.

Um, and if you compare, by the way, the rhetorics of the AfD and the rhetorics in Israel, I remember a few years ago I was asked to interview Frauke Petry.

Frauke Petry was one of the, uh, founding members of the Is- AfD.

An example of this strategy is not hard to find.

Twice in the last three decades, in neighboring Austria, the far-right Freedom Party was brought into government under the watchful eyes of the center-right People's Party.

Both times, Austria was excoriated for breaking a perceived political firewall.

But both governments also ended in scandal for the FPÖ, and its popularity then plummeted as a result.

Äh, im Jahr 2024 hat die österreichische Bundesregierung das Dokumentationsarchiv beauftragt, einen jährlichen Rechtsextremismusbericht zu erstatten.

Ähm, diese Auftragserteilung, der Umstand, dass ein Auftrag an das Dokumentationsarchiv von der Bundesregierung ergangen ist, hat die FPÖ zu einer Presseaussendung und einer Pressekonferenz veranlasst, die auch auf der Webseite der FPÖ abgedruckt wurde, die Inhalte dieser Pressekonferenz.

Und da hat sich die FPÖ aufgeregt, dass man das Dokumentationsarchiv, einen linksgeteilten Verein, mit diesem Projekt beauftragt, mit diesem Auftrag der Bundesregierung beauftragt.

Und jetzt kommt's: Ähm, das sei doch eine pseudowissenschaftliche Institution.

Mhm.

[räuspert sich] Daher haben wir das zum Anlass genommen, die Frage, ob das DÖW pseudowissenschaftlich ist oder ob man das sagen darf, dass das Dokumentationsarchiv pseudowissenschaftlich ist, jetzt wirklich noch mal einer gerichtlichen Neuüberprüfung zu unterziehen.

Mhm.

Wir haben eine Klage gegen die FPÖ eingebracht.

And that would be the first time that the Alternative for Deutschland would reach government and couldn't be blocked.

And it's really, really... difficult moment in German history because as the Alternative for Deutschland started its life as a Eurosceptic academic club of, you know, conservative professors, it has really turned now into a far-right and hardcore far-right right extremist party.

And it's very concerning, of course, for everyone else who will have to decide after these elections how to deal with this situation.

Absolutely.

Yes.

And I mean, I, as an Austrian, have to say I watch the recent developments with a certain déjà vu.

Because when in 2019, the Austrian far-right party, FPÖ, was ejected from government because of a sting operation video that surfaced, where a fake niece of a Russian oligarch, who was an actress... got the leader of the FPÖ at the time to say how he would sort of organize favors, give some power in media, etc., in exchange for donations.

And this lovely Ibiza video is now coming in a different version back through this investigation that the Channel 4 presented two nights ago.

And, um, they talk about, you know, uh, you must meet cultural assimilation standards.

In France, the National Rally, um, the Freedom Party of Austria, the Party for Freedom in Netherlands, the Brothers of Italy I mean, Chega in Portugal, Vox in Spain.

You could go on and go on and go on and go on.

The Finns Party in Finland, even Finland, you know, touted as one of the most spectacularly economically successful and socially successful countries in the world.

What

about the FPO?

Before we jump off that, after round one, we had the leaders were, you know, not probably what you would suspect with all these super teams, but after round one, you had Lucas Obenholzer-Hess,

who I've

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, in the FPO, um, I didn't get to catch really any of that, but, um, yeah, Holland Hanley and Addison Woodward came out of the gates very strong.

Also a neg 15 for those pairing.