The FPÖ has now filed a criminal complaint for trivializing National Socialism against a video that has been circulating on the Internet for months and which compares FPÖ chairman Herbert Kickl with Adolf Hitler.
Various injunctions against the association, which is backed by former Green and NEOS politician Robert Luschnik, have so far been unsuccessful.
The video refers to Kickl’s claim to become “People’s Chancellor” in the event of an election victory. This term was used by Nazi propaganda when they seized power in 1933. In the short clip, the FPÖ leader gradually transforms into a National Socialist dictator – a comparison that the Blues strictly reject.
Luzhnik defends himself
The video was created by the Democracy Austria platform, which is run by Luschnik, among others. He was once the federal director of the Greens and later of NEOS. He is currently active as a political consultant.
After the first lawsuits, he protested against any party-political attribution and instead saw the distribution of the video as “active educational work”. “Not even Mr. Kickl can sue away the historical facts,” he said.
FPÖ General Secretary Christian Hafenecker nevertheless sees this as a “green smear campaign”. The comparison with Hitler is “tasteless and completely unfounded”. The provisions in the ban law were only recently tightened. Since then, any trivialization of the Holocaust has been punishable. The FPÖ voted against the amendment in the National Council.
