Sensitive TV appearance

Old quote about the Waffen SS catches up with FPÖ leader Kickl

Kickl was in line with Krah when it came to the SS.

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Were all SS members criminals? No, according to the German AfD's top EU candidate, Maximilian Krah. His statements led to his party being kicked out of the nationalist group in Brussels. He is clearly not alone in his opinion: a look at the archives reveals astonishing parallels between FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl and Krah.

The bone of contention was an interview between Krah and the Italian newspaper "La Repubblica". Krah had said that not all members of the SS were criminals. "I will never say that everyone who wore an SS uniform was automatically a criminal." When asked whether the SS men were war criminals, he replied: "There was certainly a high percentage of criminals, but not all of them were criminals."

The consequences followed promptly. Europe's right-wing parties distanced themselves from the AfD. In Brussels, the Germans were even kicked out of the right-wing ID group. The AfD only received support from Vienna. Although the FPÖ voted to expel Krah, it voted to keep the AfD. The reason: "There is no collective liability."

Kickl and Krah on the same line
Words that sound familiar. After all, what Krah told an Italian newspaper, FPÖ leader Kickl had already said in a talk show 14 years ago. In an ATV discussion with the then President of the Jewish Community (IKG), Ariel Muzicant, he rejected a collective condemnation of the members of the Waffen SS as "nonsense".

The SS

• Among other things, the National Socialist SS guarded and administered the concentration camps and was largely responsible for other atrocious war crimes.
• At the Nuremberg trials after the end of the Second World War, it was declared a criminal organization.

"We will not be able to agree that an association as such or a unit such as the Waffen SS should be held collectively guilty," said Kickl during the debate 14 years ago, "profil" now recalled.

Guilt is something individual, just as innocence is something individual, Kickl argued. In response to Muzicant's objection that the Waffen SS was classified as a criminal organization in the Nuremberg trials, Kickl replied that it was "just as nonsense" if a "collective presumption of innocence" applied to the Wehrmacht.

Criticism from domestic parties
On Friday, the widespread statements led to criticism from political rivals. It was not surprising that the FPÖ voted against the exclusion of the AfD from the joint right-wing group ID in the EU Parliament: "No, Kickl himself trivialized the Waffen-SS," explained the SPÖ on X.

Putting an end to Kickl's activities

fordert ÖVP-Generalsekretär Christian Stocker

Bild: APA/HANS KLAUS TECHT

"These statements by Herbert Kickl are a trivialization of the atrocities of National Socialism and reveal Kickl's world view," ÖVP Secretary General Christian Stocker also criticized. "Anyone who engages in politics with such a mindset has no place in a democratic party spectrum," said Stocker. It is to be hoped "that the moderate forces within the Freedom Party will come to their senses and put an end to Kickl's activities".

Clarification demanded
The NEOS demanded an immediate clarification from FPÖ EU top candidate Harald Vilimsky and accused him of hypocrisy because he described Krah's statement as unacceptable, but did not criticize Kickl's statement. There was no difference in content, both statements trivialized the cold-blooded murders of the SS in an intolerable way, both were unacceptable, said Secretary General Douglas Hoyos.

"Whether AfD-Krah or FPÖ-Kickl, trivializing the SS is unacceptable," criticized Olga Voglauer, Secretary General of the Greens. Such historical revisionism shows "whose brainchild Herbert Kickl and his far-right FPÖ are".

No comment from the FPÖ
The FPÖ did not wish to comment on this on Friday. After Krah's statements were published, Marine Le Pen's French Rassemblement National in particular voiced clear criticism. "Red lines" had been crossed. It remains to be seen whether these will also be drawn retroactively.