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Austria far-right party head resigns after infighting

Norbert Hofer, the leader of Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), announced his resignation Tuesday after weeks of infighting and tension with party colleague and former Interior Minister Herbert Kickl.

Austria far-right party head resigns after infighting
Former leader of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe) Norbert Hofer. Photo: ALEX HALADA / AFP

 “My own journey at the helm of the FPOe is ending today,” Hofer said in an FPOe press release but clarified that he will keep his position as one of the deputy presidents of parliament until the next general election, currently scheduled for 2024.

Hofer has a mild-mannered public image and was seen as representing a more moderate wing within the anti-migration FPOe, which has been known to use Islamophobic rhetoric and imagery.

Hofer had for months been at loggerheads with Kickl, the party’s longterm ideologue who has been behind some of the FPOe’s most trenchant campaigns.

Hofer has walked with a cane since a 2003 paraglider accident and announced his resignation following three weeks of treatment for his old injuries at a physical rehabilitation centre.

When the tabloid Oesterreich asked Hofer Tuesday if his resignation was also partially in response to differences of opinion with Kickl, he replied: “Yes, of course. I won’t be told every day that I am out of place.”

The two politicians had differing approaches to the coronavirus pandemic. Hofer was notable in the FPOe caucus for wearing the FFP2 face mask required in parliament, while Kickl made a point of not doing so and made fiery addresses to anti-lockdown demonstrations.

In 2016 Hofer narrowly failed in his bid to become the first far-right president of an EU member state, losing to Alexander Van der Bellen by some 31,000 votes.

He took over as head of the party in 2019 when Heinz-Christian Strache, then Austria’s Vice Chancellor, was forced to resign after secretly recorded footage in a luxury villa in Ibiza showed him offering a woman posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch state contracts in exchange for campaign help for the FPOe.

The so-called “Ibiza-gate” scandal brought down the first coalition headed by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, an alliance of his centre-right People’s Party (OeVP) and the FPOe.

“The time after Ibiza wasn’t easy,” Hofer said in his statement, adding that it had been “a difficult job to build the party back up again” after the coalition collapsed.

“In the last few months it has been possible to stabilise the party,” he said, pointing to improved recent performance in the polls where it has scored as high as 20 percent.

The party won just over 16 percent in the last national elections in 2019.

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POLITICS

Austrias far right demands an EU ‘remigration’ commissioner

Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) on Tuesday called for the government to name an EU "remigration" commissioner after winning the EU elections in the Alpine nation.

Austrias far right demands an EU 'remigration' commissioner

The FPOe espouses the far-right concept of remigration that calls for expelling people of non-European ethnic backgrounds who they say have failed to integrate.

While it is up to the conservative government to nominate any commissioner, the FPOe said its first nationwide win at the ballot box gave it the right to name someone to the role and dictate their portfolio.

In the EU elections, the FPOe took 25.4 percent of the votes, just ahead of the ruling conservative People’s Party (OeVP) on 24.5 percent.

“What I have noticed in the last few weeks during the election campaign is that there is above all a need for sensible migration policy, that there is a need for remigration,” FPOe secretary general Christian Hafenecker told a press conference.

“We need a remigration commissioner,” he added, putting forward an FPOe official to fill the role.

It is not the first time the FPOe has espoused the concept

In 2023, party leader Herbert Kickl said that those who “refuse to integrate” should lose their citizenship and be expelled.

The notion of remigration is associated with white nationalists who champion the great replacement conspiracy theory.

The theory alleges a plot to replace Europe’s so-called native white population with non-white migrants.

The United Nations rights chief warned in March that the conspiracy theories spread are “delusional” and racist and are directly spurring violence.

The FPOe is expected to top the vote in September’s national elections, but will probably need to find willing coalition partners to govern.

The party — founded in the 1950s by former Nazis — has been part of a ruling coalition several times but has never governed the country of nine million.

READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: What does Austria’s far-right win in the EU elections mean for foreigners?

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