VIENNA – Austria is heading to troubled political times. On September 29, elections will be held for the National Council, the lower House of Austria’s bicameral parliament. For the first time in the history of the Austrian Second Republic, proclaimed during the last days of WWII, polls are predicting a possible victory of the far-right Freedom Party, FPÖ. This party, led by former interior minister Herbert Kickl, recently won a general election for the first time after it became Austria’s largest party in the elections held in June for the European Parliament.
Recently, however, the ruling conservative party, the ÖVP, has narrowed the gap while still holding its position as the second-biggest party. Even if the ÖVP, led by Chancellor Karl Nehammer, succeeds in winning the parliamentary elections, a possible right-wing coalition between the ÖVP and the FPÖ seems quite unlikely. The last federal coalition between the ÖVP and FPÖ, led by former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, collapsed in 2019 over disputes involving Kickl, then interior minister and not yet party leader.
Since then, animosity between the two parties has grown. Nehammer declares that he is willing to form a new coalition with the Freedom Party but refuses that Kickl will be part of it. After the 2019 election, the ÖVP formed a conservative-green coalition, a first in Europe, which lasted nearly five years but became contentious. Forming a coalition with the Social Democrats is also unpopular among Conservatives, leaving Austria’s political future uncertain. So, who will rule Austria?
After the European elections, Vienna was chosen to host the grounding event of a new, right-wing political alliance, “Patriots for Europe,” founded by the Hungarian ruling party, Fidesz, the FPÖ, and the Czech former ruling party ANO.
In less than 10 days, this new alliance became the third biggest group in the European Parliament, joined by other leading parties such as the French National Rally, the Dutch Party for Freedom, the Italian Lega, the Spanish VOX, and the Flemish-Belgian Vlaams Belang. The German AfD, having close links to the FPÖ, decided to form its own group as it was sanctioned by other parties in the Patriots alliance. The head of the FPÖ list to the European Parliament, Harald Vilimsky, was chosen as one of the vice presidents of this group. Vilimsky, 58, former General Secretary of the FPÖ, is considered as the “shadow foreign minister” of his party.
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When Sebastian Kurz formed his government with the FPÖ, it was reported that Austria’s President, Alexander Van der Bellen – former leader of the Green Party, vetoed the nomination of Vilimsky as a minister because of his radical positions, expressions, and contacts. In January 2009, for example, during Operation Cast Lead, Vilimsky harshly criticized the West’s silence on Israel’s “extermination campaign against the Palestinians” and accused the EU and the USA of becoming Israeli lobby organizations. “This Western hypocrisy stinks to the skies,” he stated. A few months later, he spoke about the global financial crisis, referring to gamblers from the “East Coast,” a German antisemitic coded expression used to spread the idea of Jewish control over the USA.
HOWEVER, IN recent years, Vilimsky changed his opinion on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He expressed his open solidarity with Israel after October 7, attacked the pro-Hamas and pro-Palestine demonstrations in Austria and elsewhere in Europe, and recently denounced Turkey’s threats to attack Israel. The FPÖ is calling for restoring Austria’s neutrality, but in fighting radical Islam and the Islamization of Europe, it sees no such neutrality.
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Vilimsky says that “it is certainly a legitimate position” to say that Israel is currently waging a civilizational war for the West. “Islamism is a massive problem in Europe too”, he explained. “Israel represents a bulwark against Islamism and political Islam. The terrorist organization Hamas can also be seen as part of the Muslim Brotherhood, which, as the most notable representative of political Islam, also partially infiltrates the political structures in Europe, especially those of the Social-Democratic and Christian-Social (conservative) parties. There is an old saying that if Israel falls, Europe falls. I can certainly agree with that.” Regarding the change of stance, Vilimsky says: “I think everyone should have the right to change his position on a topic if you deal with it more intensively.”
The FPÖ, founded after WWII by former Nazis and headed in the past by the Nazi-sympathizer Jörg Haider, is still boycotted by the Austrian Jewish community and by the Government of Israel as it is considered to have antisemitic tendencies in its rows. Under its former leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, and while Vilimsky was the Secretary General of the FPÖ, several rapprochement initiatives with Israel were undertaken. Nevertheless, Israel refuses any contact with the FPÖ to this day. A victory of the FPÖ in the coming elections might create renewed tensions between Jerusalem and Vienna after the honeymoon period under the last Austrian conservative governments.
Vilimsky sees a way that might ease the Israeli boycott. “All visits by Freedom Party members to Israel were regularly torpedoed by the leadership of the Jewish Community in Vienna for political reasons,” he claims. “One has the impression that its President Oskar Deutsch is deliberately defaming and demonizing us on behalf of the Social Democrats and the Christian Socialists. In the past, contact was always exclusively maintained with the Likud, and meetings with their representatives were planned. In the future, it may be more effective to contact other right-wing parties, over which Mr. Deutsch has no influence. If I am invited (to Israel), I will gladly plan a trip. I would like to point out that I recently planned such a trip, and it was again torpedoed by the people mentioned above.”
Deutsch reacted to Vilimsky’s accusations by saying, “not every nonsense has to be commented on.”
ASKED IF the FPÖ accepts the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism and if the Patriots for Europe should adopt this definition to avoid any doubts about its stand on this issue, Vilimsky replied: “Basically, the IHRA definition of antisemitism is a reasonable and understandable one. We, as the Freedom Party, are extremely cautious and precise when it comes to the definition of antisemitism. Too often in the past, we have found ourselves confronted with false accusations of antisemitism. For example, our legitimate criticism of George Soros and his organizations was considered antisemitic by the media and representatives of the Jewish community, although Mr. Soros and his organizations are sharply criticized in Israel on the same grounds, and he himself is considered a persona non grata in large parts of the conservative and right-wing spectrum.”
Vilimsky sees the possibility of a religious war happening in Europe. “There is a great fear, and the tendencies are becoming more and more apparent, as we have seen in recent months with the Gaza conflict,” he warns. “Antisemitism in Europe has increased immeasurably due ‘thanks’ to the majority of Islamic migrants and immigrants. In addition, if you take France as an example, churches are being looted or deliberately destroyed by radical Muslims and Christian priests are being attacked. There were the Islamist terrorist attacks in European cities, which showed us our vulnerability. There is a great danger that if European politics continues like this, we will soon share the same fate with Israel.”
“In many European cities,” emphasizes the FPÖ politician, “we are seeing that what used to be an Islamic minority has now become the majority. We owe this above all to the fatal ‘welcome policy’ that is still in the minds of many European governments and also in the EU. They have basically been pushing this problem aside for 10 years, while masses of illegal migrants continue to arrive on Europe’s shores. In this respect, the Islamization of Europe has something to do with the EU’s migration policy. If this is not immediately changed into a strict ‘no way’ policy like in Australia, our continent will soon be unrecognizable.”
FOLLOWING THE founding of the group “Patriots for Europe,” Vilimsky hopes that this political alliance will be able to influence the policies of the EU and put a halt to the plans to transform the EU into a federal and multicultural superstate. “Who doesn’t fight, has already lost,” he says. “Of course, the headwind blowing against us is strong. But I believe that we are stronger and more convinced than ever that patriotic and conservative parties are initiating a turnaround by stopping the development of wanting to create an EU superstate. Within the European Parliament, as the third largest group in the House, we will demonstrate with parliamentary, but above all political work, that we do not accept such madness as the ‘Green Deal,’ warmongering and the EU superstate and will fight against it. We are also thrilled about the upcoming elections in many European countries, but especially those in the USA.”
Vilimsky sees the current policies of the EU as the main threat to the Union itself. “We see that in many areas, the political agendas of the EU have caused a lot of harm to European states. Just take the left-wing ideological experiment called the ‘Green Deal,’ which has not only put Europe’s prosperity at risk but is already endangering it. In addition, freedom is to be restricted or even abolished in many areas, as can be seen in the Digital Services Act or the Media Freedom Act, which are intended to monitor free media so that no ‘false opinion’ is published. And finally, there is the war in Ukraine, which is a costly undertaking, where billions are being swallowed up and the EU is doing nothing to even begin to work towards a peaceful solution.”
The FPÖ, as many other sovereigntist parties in Europe, opposes the support given to Ukraine against the Russian aggression. Here as well, the FPÖ is demanding that Austria remain neutral and avoid moves that will damage its economy.
“From a historical perspective, Russia has always been a threat to Europe,” explained Vilimsky. “Therefore, it has always been crucial for Europe to win Russia as a partner, but also to stand up for and defend its own interests. I am afraid that Europe is on the path to forming a new ‘bloc thinking’ by not seeking to resolve the war peacefully with both sides, but rather fueling it. The clear losers of this agenda will be the Europeans and the Russians. In any case, we want Austria to stay neutral and not be actively drawn into this war, as the current federal government has already done.”