Last week, Austria’s new right-wing coalition government was sworn in. While Sebastian Kurz, the conservative People’s Party leader, became Europe’s youngest government head, the far-right Freedom Party got several key portfolios. Austria’s police, army and intelligence will now be headed by far-right politicians.
One of them is Herbert Kickl, the new Interior Minister. Mr. Kickl used to write the provocative — often termed racist and anti-Semitic — speeches of the former far-right leader Jörg Haider. Haider, who led the Freedom Party in the 1990s and early 2000s, died in a car accident in 2008. Mr. Kickl is also known for coining the party’s slogans such as ‘Daham statt Islam’ (At home instead of Islam). He has appeared on events like the Defenders of Europe Congress, where right-wing politicians, writers and activists from all over Europe gather in Austria. Mr. Kickl's spokesman is Alexander Höferl, who was a leading figure of unzensuriert.at, an extremist portal known for its racist and Islamophobic content and often called the Austrian Breitbart News.
With the Freedom Party in power, sweeping changes to asylum and migration policies are in the offing. The government has already announced harsh steps, including confiscation of mobile phones and cash from the newly arriving refugees. The government argues that the money should be used for providing primary care to all refugees. The seizure of the mobile phones, the government says, is to screen the refugees’ personality and track other data. Additionally, medics who treat them can be forced to share every information that “appears to be important” with the authorities.
“I become scared when I heard of these plans. When I arrived in Austria six years ago, I couldn’t imagine how I would have reacted if the police had taken my phone or money from me. Refugees are human beings too. They had a reason when they fled their countries. Such a treatment towards them is, in my opinion, totally inhuman and not acceptable,” said Fardeen Sultanzada, 26, an Afghan refugee who lives in the city of Innsbruck.
Propaganda effect
Mr. Sultanzada’s application for asylum was rejected twice by Austrian authorities before it was finally accepted a few months ago. “I always had the feeling that many people in Austria don’t like refugees. They believe we are evil and we take away their jobs and their money. Although facts have often proved that this is just propaganda, many Austrians voted for the far-right. Now they are in power, and they can do a lot against people like me,” he said.
The government formation has triggered some protests. During the inauguration, thousands of people demonstrated in Vienna against “racism and fascism”. Still the Freedom Party’s entry into government appears to be more acceptable this time than the last. When it joined the government in 2000 through a coalition with the conservatives, Thomas Klestil, then President of Austria, didn’t hide his displeasure. The European Union targeted Austria with sanctions amid an international outrage. But today, times have changed. Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen, a former Green politician, offered a warm welcome to the government, without any criticism. There’s no international or European outrage. One of the reasons could be that the far-right parties are on the rise in many European countries, and have already entered the political mainstream or they are now, as described in German, “salonfähig”, which means socially acceptable.
Emran Feroz is a freelance journalist based in Stuttgart, Germany
