Brutal threats

Kickl’s show of extremes: “Redemption is near”

(Bild: APA/Erwin Scheriau)

The FPÖ celebrated the start of the 2024 super election year with its New Year's meeting on Saturday. In Graz, Herbert Kickl launched into a political all-round attack in brute language, in the knowledge that a "people's chancellorship" is no longer a liberal castle in the air. Previously, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) had once again fired a shot at the FPÖ.

"Before Herbert arrives", implored a firebrand in the Schwarzl Freizeitzentrum, "the hall should shake". Kickl's court musician Werner Otti also breathed an emotional version of "You Raise Me Up" into the microphone.

When the blue chairman Kickl marched into the festival hall near Graz with an XXL version of the national flag, there was no stopping the beer-soaked crowd. Or as EU top candidate Harald Vilimsky put it: if this hall had a smell, it would be a "blue smell, a red-white-red smell".

Kickl with an all-round attack
No wonder, the dream of a "people's chancellorship" is within reach. The FPÖ has cemented its leading position in the polls, so Kickl - accompanied by shouts of "Herbert" - took an offensive political swing.

Impressions of the FPÖ New Year's meeting:

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He is "highly motivated". "We will show you where you belong", Kickl declared towards the governing parties. "We will wrestle the bull to the ground." The blue chairman proclaimed 2024 to be the fateful year. It should be written in the history books: The "return of democracy" and the "throwing off of chains" would have begun in the Schwarzlhalle.

The blue lightning bolt
He described the blue electorate as a "CO₂-free power station". This positive energy would strike like blue lightning in a "system of power lust". When people like "Mr. Blabla" (assumption: Babler), Kogler or Nehammer call him "right-wing extremist", he wears this label with pride. Like a "medal".

He is the only "normalo", the blue Hercules. He alone fights against the mafia. Against the Hydra with "black, red, pink and green heads".

Kickl's threats

• Climate: The world will not end, one species or another may die out, possibly "the Greens in parliament".
• Corona: He already has "a long wanted list of those fleeing responsibility, Nehammer, Rauch, Edtstadler, Kogler, Schallenberg ...".
• Benko: "Benko, Gusenbauer, Haselsteiner and the noodly Kogler" stand for a "swingers' club of the power-hungry".
• Ukraine: In relation to the EU, the magic word is veto, veto against the redistribution of refugees and against billions of euros for Ukraine and veto against Russia sanctions.

For Kickl, the political system is a mirror image of René Benko's economic model. The FPÖ leader described the financial juggler as a "suitor and pimp for the whore of the rich". Gusenbauer was Benko's "red, fat spider" and Haselsteiner had financed the system.

On the political side, the three were "Nehammer, Babler and Meinl-Reisinger". This is not a vision of the future, but a "swingers' club of the power-hungry".

Kickl threatens in all directions
"Pragmatized experts" and the "system media" also got their comeuppance. Anything was fine to denigrate the Freedom Party: "You've fallen out of time", Kickl shouted at media representatives. Journalists were not given their own press ID badges, but buttons with a drawn picture of Kickl and the words "Volkskanzler" (People's Chancellor) and a blue dot.

The term "People's Chancellor" is heavily tainted by the Nazi era.

(Bild: APA/ERWIN SCHERIAU)

Kickl is puzzled as to why all parties do not run on a single list, as they all have the sole aim of preventing a liberal head of government: "The People's Treason list would fit well."

And when it comes to remigration, everyone is "gasping for breath", but with Corona, "millions of people have been declared undesirables in their own country". But the "madness" would soon come to an end: "Redemption is near", he shouted to the excited crowd.

Vilimsky with EU bashing
Prior to this, Vilimsky had naturally railed against Brussels: "The place has to shrink." Instead of over 700 MEPs, only half are needed. "Even the Commission with 27 Commissioners, which is maltreating the EU with its rules, can be trimmed down."

The 2024 election calendar: 

Styrian top candidate Mario Kunasek announced that he does not want to be the governor of all provinces. He does not want to be the governor "of the terrorists and the robber barons in the social system". He wants to be the governor "of high achievers, families, single mothers and hackers".

Kunasek oracled that Styria, the green state, would soon be beaten with blue power. He saw a historic opportunity to do something "new in the green marrow".

Kunasek: Time for first places
But this would only be possible with first place. Kunasek recalled the year 2015, when three parties were very close together and the FPÖ came away empty-handed. He attacked Governor Christopher Drexler (ÖVP) because he claimed to be part of the middle class with a salary of 20,000 euros a month.

"If I have this mindset, then I can't do politics for the top performers in the country." He also insulted the ÖVP as a corrupt party - but of course left out the fact that he himself is under investigation for corruption.

FPÖ is confident of victory
The Schwarzlhalle was packed with well over 2000 visitors. After the extreme speeches by the FPÖ grandees, Graz was already certain with a view to the 2024 super election year: "Kickl will do it!"

Think Kickl is a phoney: Chancellor Nehammer (left), Interior Minister Karner

(Bild: APA/Helmut Fohringer/picturedesk.com)

"Just a big mouth"
Meanwhile, the ÖVP has other hopes. Chancellor Karl Nehammer had already portrayed Kickl as a phoney - he was deceiving people, Nehammer made clear. It was not until Saturday morning - before Kickl launched another sweeping attack on the "system" - that Interior Minister Karner followed up. Kickl had nothing but a "big mouth", especially when it came to migration.