Shitstorm on X

ORF presenter withdraws after Kickl posting

Patrick Budgen dealt with the FPÖ leader's health and got himself into hot water.

(Bild: APA/HANS PUNZ)

ORF presenter Patrick Budgen actually wanted to tease an interview for the program "Wien heute" on the short message platform X (formerly Twitter). However, his thoughts on the general state of health of FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl triggered a huge shitstorm. Budgen declared shortly afterwards that he now wanted to take a "break" on X.

Everyone is talking about the unauthorized biography of the blue frontman that was published this week. While there was initially a stir because the two authors Robert Treichler and Gernot Bauer had made a few research errors, a veritable shitstorm has now ensued.

Budgen quoted from the book "Kickl und die Zerstörung Europas" as an announcement for his show on Saturday evening: "We know from Herbert Kickl that he is relatively often ill. He often makes excuses and disappears for 1-2 days. I'm curious to see whether he even has the robustness to be at the top."

Screenshot from the video of Herbert Kickl's "investigative biography"

(Bild: Screenshot/YouTube/FPÖ TV)

"Health is something very private"
In this passage, Treichler and Bauer deal with Kickl's ambitions to become chancellor and question the suitability of the Freedom Party leader. This was followed by a huge outcry and the comment that health is a private matter.

For example, "Standard" journalist Colette Schmidt wrote: "I think health is a very private matter, even for politicians - unless it hinders the fulfillment of the office. But what I would always advise everyone to do: Give conventional medicine a chance! I mean human medicine, not horse dewormers." Lawyer Sascha Flatz said: "This is really deep, unbelievable ..."

For Budgen, the tone on X became "increasingly so aggressive and destructive" that he decided without further ado to take "an X break".

On "Wien heute", Budgen interviewed Kickl biographer Gernot Bauer and confronted him with the research errors, for which the party leader had published a six-minute video in which he tore up the content of the book and described it as "embarrassing". Bauer defended the work and said that with 250 pages, only two paragraphs with errors was "really not much".