Herbert Kikl is a pro-Russian and anti-American theoretician and is the favorite for the new leader of Austria.
Austrian politician Herbert Kikl is pro-Russian and anti-American theoretician conspiracy that is recommended treating covid with an antiparasitic medicine for horses, and today he wants to turn Austria into a “fortress” to protect it from migrants. He is also the favorite for the new leader of the country and Europe’s new big headachewrites Politiko.
Kiklo’s far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) leads in public opinion polls by several percentage points since November last year because rising inflation i a large increase in the number of asylum requests caused dissatisfaction with the current government, the coalition of the People’s People of Austria. Party (OeVP, centre-right) and the Greens.
Given that the other main opposition party, the Social Democrats (SPOe), is ravaged by internal turmoil, Kiklo’s party has the best chance of winning power in the last few years. That would be it a big problem for the European Unionwhich is already struggling with Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban is systematically taking control of all important levers of government and undermining independent media, turning the country into what critics say is a semi-authoritarian state in the middle of the EU.
Disaster
Austria is not the only country in the region prone to urbanism. Adjacent Slovakia is also on the verge of a revival of populism. The pro-Russian party Smer-SDwhose leader is a former prime minister Robert Ficodriven from office in 2018 during a wave of protests over the murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancee, leads in the polls ahead of early elections in September. Fico promised that, if elected, Slovakia will no longer provide military support to neighboring Ukraine.
European officials warn that these victories by pro-Russian forces in Slovakia and Austria would give Russian President Vladimir Putin a powerful tool in the fight against Ukraine. and made it easier for him to undermine the sanctions and efforts of the European Union to help Ukraine.
“That would be a disaster,” said a senior European Commission official from the region. Kikl is far from a sure victory. Due to his cheeky style, he is one of the most unpopular Austrian politicians. Moreover, support for the Freedom Party has proven volatile in the past and this new momentum is likely fueled more by the frustrations of many Austrians with the dysfunctionality of the current government than by hopes of a revival of the far right. However, the recent rise of the party cannot be ignored.
Hungary as a model
Cic, who was the minister of the interior during the short-lived coalition of the Freedom Party with the People’s Party of former chancellor Sebastian Kurz, is a familiar face in Brussels. They don’t remember him well. One of his first moves as Minister of the Interior was to change the name of Austria’s asylum seeker registration centers to “Departure Centers”.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola told an Austrian newspaper last week that she had “serious doubts” that Kikl was fit for any ministerial post. “He’s just not to be trusted,” Metsola said.
The next regular elections in Austria are not scheduled until the autumn of next year, but the continuation of tensions in the current coalition of chancellors Karla Nehamera, whose People’s Party is currently behind the Freedom Party by eight percentage points, increase the chances that the elections will come even earlier than expected. “I did not become the leader of the party to lead in the polls, but to win the elections,” Kikl said recently. Kikl promises to use Austria’s veto in the European Council to cancel the sanctions against Russia, which he claims are “meaningless”.
During a recent visit to Budapest, where he met with his mentor Orban, he did not hide that he aimed to turn Austria into a new Hungarywhich he praised as a “paradise of national self-determination and resistance to globalist intervention from Brussels”.
People’s Chancellor
The Freedom Party, which was founded in the fifties of the last century by former Nazis, and which is known in the world for the so-called Ibiza to the scandal that brought down Kikl’s predecessor, Heinz-Christian Strache, has long-standing ties with Russia. Strache signed a partnership agreement with Putin’s United Russia party in 2016.
Although Kikl insists that the arrangement has expired, he and other leaders of the Freedom Party do not hide their affection for Russia. For example, the party has proposed dozens of pro-Russian resolutions in the Austrian parliament since the beginning of Putin’s open war against Ukraine. She has also released dozens of statements over the past year calling for the lifting of sanctions against Russia.
EUROPE’S NEW HEADACHE – IT WOULD BE A DISASTER! He loves Orban, he is a pro-Russian conspiracy theorist and the favorite for the leader of THIS country
Migration is still the main topic of the Freedom Party. Since the number of asylum applications in Austria tripled last year, the highest in the EU, it is an issue voters understand. In line with Kikl’s “fortress” rhetoric, many of the Freedom Party’s priorities are focused on cultural identity. One initiative to save Austrian inns, for example, it promised subsidies, but only if the recipients served “traditional and regional specialties.”
Second demanded that children speak German on school playgrounds. The Austrian media often ridicules such ideas, but it seems to go down well with many voters. In January, the party finished second in regional elections in Lower Austria, the country’s largest province, shattering the People’s Party’s long-standing absolute majority. This forced the center-right to agree to a coalition with the far-right in that province. A similar scenario played out a few weeks later in the province of Salzburg, where the Freedom Party won a seat in the regional government.
However, at the national level, Kickle is unlikely to agree to play second fiddle. The party agreed to this twice in the last 25 years as a junior partner of the People’s Party and both coalitions ended with the party splitting due to scandals and internal divisions. Kikl points out that this time his goal is clear: to become “Volkskanzler” – people’s chancellorstates Politiko.
(WORLD)