With knife sharpener

Kickl goes on tour in Austria: “With you against the system”

The FPÖ is sending party leader Herbert Kickl on a tour of Austria "against the system".(Bild: AP)

FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl is going on tour in Austria again, "with you against the system" is the motto. The tour starts on Friday afternoon in Vienna-Floridsdorf. The tour will conclude on Wednesday next week in Graz. 

In addition to the party leader, tailors and knife grinders will once again be on the bill, said General Secretary Michael Schnedlitz at a press conference on Tuesday.

"From the people - for the people"
Kickl himself stayed away from the media event, but his Secretary General made all the more effort to drum home the FPÖ's message: In view of the EU and National Council elections, they are in a "fateful year", it is about the "interests of the people" instead of the "system", and they stand alone against a "united party" of the other established forces.

"From the people - for the people" could be read on the subject behind Schnedlitz, with "People's Chancellor" underneath - Kickl's portrait fitted between "People" and "Chancellor".

Schnedlitz railed against rising fuel prices, "warmongering" and a planned further "gift of taxpayers' money" for Ukraine, which would leave "our own people" with nothing. The FPÖ, on the other hand, wanted to "give something big, to strike a blow for the people, to get people out of their misery".

The FPÖ wants to do great things to lift people out of their misery.

FPÖ-Generalsekretär Michael Schnedlitz

He identified an "unprecedented forward movement", the Freedom Party was "at eye level and shoulder to shoulder with the people", and Kickl wanted to be "nothing but the voice and mouthpiece of the people". The "system" is therefore in a panic and is attempting to attack the FPÖ.

Nepp goes after Viennese rivals
As the tour starts in Vienna, regional party leader Dominik Nepp also had his say. He let rip at his political rivals in city hall and announced that social benefits would only be available to Austrians "when I am mayor in 2025". Nepp wants to force violent young people into "boot camps" and Vienna must become the "deportation capital".