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‘Erdogan, stay at home’

Austrian far-right leader Heinz-Christian Strache told Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday to "stay at home," ahead of a controversial election rally planned in Vienna later this month.

Published: 8 June 2014 15:52 CEST

'Erdogan, stay at home'

HC Strache. Photo: Wikimedia

"We don't need Erdogan in Vienna. I'll tell him right now: 'Erdogan, stay at home'," Freedom Party (FPOe) leader Strache told the daily Oesterreich.

Erdogan is expected to hold a rally in Vienna on June 19th in what is seen as a bid to win overseas votes ahead of presidential elections in August — although he has yet to announce his candidacy.

An estimated 100,000 eligible Turkish voters live in Austria.

Last month, a similar rally in Germany was attended by some 20,000 Erdogan supporters. But it also drew some 40,000 protesters who blasted Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) as fascist and anti-democratic.

Erdogan has come under increasing pressure at home over the past year for what many perceive as a move towards a more authoritarian rule.

So far, no bilateral meetings have been planned for the Turkish premier during his Austrian visit.

"If he wants to come here on a state visit, he may of course. But he won't be meeting any politicians during his Vienna visit," said Strache.

"This is just a propaganda campaign for his Erdoganistan. I find this alarming," he added, insisting that Erdogan was seeking to establish a "parallel society" in Austria.

The populist Freedom Party (FPOe) opposes Turkey's proposed admission to the European Union and is also strongly anti-immigration and anti-Islam.

In recent EU elections, the FPOe — which has been seeking an alliance with France's National Front and Italy's Northern League — won 19.7 percent of votes, finishing third behind the ruling parties.

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From Swexit to Frexit: How Europe's far-right parties have ditched plans to leave EU

Whereas plans to leave the bloc took centre stage at the last European polls in 2019, far-right parties have shifted their focus to issues such as immigration as they seek mainstream votes.

“Quickly a lot of far-right parties abandoned their firing positions and their radical discourse aimed at leaving the European Union, even if these parties remain eurosceptic,” Thierry Chopin, a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges told AFP.

Britain, which formally left the EU in early 2020 following the 2016 Brexit referendum, remains the only country to have left so far.

Here is a snapshot:

No Nexit

The Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) led by Geert Wilders won a stunning victory in Dutch national elections last November and polls indicate it will likely top the European vote in the Netherlands.

While the manifesto for the November election stated clearly: “the PVV wants a binding referendum on Nexit” — the Netherlands leaving the EU — such a pledge is absent from the European manifesto.

For more coverage of the 2024 European Elections click here.

The European manifesto is still fiercely eurosceptic, stressing: “No European superstate for us… we will work hard to change the Union from within.”

The PVV, which failed to win a single seat in 2019 European Parliament elections, called for an end to the “expansion of unelected eurocrats in Brussels” and took aim at a “veritable tsunami” of EU environmental regulations.

No Frexit either

Leaders of France’s National Rally (RN) which is also leading the polls in a challenge to President Emmanuel Macron, have also explicitly dismissed talk they could ape Britain’s departure when unveiling the party manifesto in March.

“Our Macronist opponents accuse us… of being in favour of a Frexit, of wanting to take power so as to leave the EU,” party leader Jordan Bardella said.

But citing EU nations where the RN’s ideological stablemates are scoring political wins or in power, he added: “You don’t leave the table when you’re about to win the game.”

READ ALSO: What’s at stake in the 2024 European parliament elections?

Bardella, 28, who took over the party leadership from Marine Le Pen in 2021, is one of France’s most popular politicians.

The June poll is seen as a key milestone ahead of France’s next presidential election in 2027, when Le Pen, who lead’s RN’s MPs, is expected to mount a fourth bid for the top job.

Dexit, maybe later

The co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, said in January 2024 that the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum was an example to follow for the EU’s most populous country.

Weidel said the party, currently Germany’s second most popular, wanted to reform EU institutions to curb the power of the European Commission and address what she saw as a democratic deficit.

But if the changes sought by the AfD could not be realised, “we could have a referendum on ‘Dexit’ — a German exit from the EU”, she said.

The AfD which has recently seen a significant drop in support as it contends with various controversies, had previously downgraded a “Dexit” scenario to a “last resort”.

READ ALSO: ‘Wake-up call’: Far-right parties set to make huge gains in 2024 EU elections

Fixit, Swexit, Polexit…

Elsewhere the eurosceptic Finns Party, which appeals overwhelmingly to male voters, sees “Fixit” as a long-term goal.

The Sweden Democrats (SD) leader Jimmie Akesson and leading MEP Charlie Weimers said in February in a press op ed that “Sweden is prepared to leave as a last resort.”

Once in favour of a “Swexit”, the party, which props up the government of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, in 2019 abandoned the idea of leaving the EU due to a lack of public support.

In November 2023 thousands of far-right supporters in the Polish capital Warsaw called for a “Polexit”.

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