There was great outrage on Tuesday about a spokesperson for Lower Austrian FPÖ regional councilor Gottfried Waldhäusl in a TV debate. With a stricter asylum policy, ‘Vienna would still be Vienna’, he accused a student with a migration background. The other parliamentary parties were shocked, there was a complaint about incitement to hatred and in the home state, which was politically reorganized after the state elections (see video), Waldhäusl came under heavy fire. He himself insists: “I support this statement 100 percent, because the truth is acceptable,” he said on Thursday – and even followed up.
If the FPÖ’s asylum policy had been introduced 20 to 30 years ago, “Vienna would still be Vienna,” he repeated his heavily criticized terms. In an interview with the APA, he also expressed “fear that one day my grandchildren will have to use guns to defend our homeland of Austria” and spoke out against “illegal mass immigration” from the likes of Turkey, Syria and Afghanistan.
Everything would have turned out differently with Haider’s policy
“We will have to fight for our homeland if we don’t put an end to it,” said the liberal, speaking of an “attack on our Christian West”. If the FPÖ under the leadership of Jörg Haider had actually implemented its asylum policy, “we would not have committed many criminal offenses related to foreigners” and a smaller proportion of foreign prisoners in the penitentiary.
‘I am ashamed of this minister’
Towards his critics, he went one step further. After constitutional minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) was “stunned” by his statement, he said: “I am ashamed of this civil minister.”
The stumbling block in the Pulse 4 “Pros and Cons” discussion:
Discussion on the new Lower Austrian state government: Mikl-Leitner from a distance
Then the governor of Lower Austria, Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP), also intervened: “As for the explanation, I think one word is enough, namely alien.” Whether Waldhäusl could be part of the next state government as before remains to be seen. She referred to ongoing talks with the other parties, “where the question is who will get the real responsibility”. Waldhäusl had indicated several times that he wanted to stay on. “If someone says they want to be one, it’s not certain that they will be at all,” says Mikl-Leitner. That should be decided internally by the bodies of the FPÖ.
“Power for people”, “flagrant racism”, “sincere Nazi”
SPÖ union manager Christian Deutsch immediately called for consequences, saying: “The fact that Waldhäusl denies young people who go to school in Austria the right to exist in front of the camera shows the contempt for people in the FPÖ that makes you shiver.” NEOS human rights spokeswoman Stephanie Krisper spoke of “blatant racism that children had to experience”. Justice Minister Alma Zadic (Greens) encouraged the affected students on Twitter, saying: “You are all Vienna and part of our society. Never be denied that, neither by politicians nor by anyone.”
Former NEOS Member of Parliament Sepp Schellhorn went one step further and described Waldhäusl on Wednesday – also on Pulse 4 – as a “sincere Nazi”. You do the freedom struggle an injustice if you describe it as a Nazi in the basement. He conveys these views to the outside world and does not just hang flags in the basement.
Incitement to hatred and request for dismissal
The lawyer Wilfried Embacher, who specializes in immigration and asylum law, has now announced that he will be prosecuted on suspicion of incitement to hatred. SOS Mitmensch started a petition to dismiss Waldhäusl as a provincial councillor. He must be “immediately removed from office” and “may not be reappointed to the Asylum and Integration Council,” the human rights organization said on behalf of Mikl-Leitner. “A student’s racial degradation must have consequences.”
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
