Voices on legal pact:

“Kickl wants to turn Austria into Orbanistan”

FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl wants to form an EU parliamentary group with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (left) and former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.

(Bild: APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

The right-wing parties from Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, which won the EU elections, want to form a joint EU parliamentary group. In Austria, the ÖVP, Greens, SPÖ and NEOS unsurprisingly reacted very critically to this planned tripartite alliance. 

National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) said in the ORF "Pressestunde": "The right-wing parties are always forming themselves differently. This is due to party tactics."

"Babis is regularly suspected of corruption"
Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) said that Herbert Kickl's joint appearance with Andrej Babiš, "the former Czech Prime Minister who is regularly suspected of corruption, and the Hungarian Prime Minister and Putin ally Viktor Orbán shows quite openly what the FPÖ leader wants: he wants to turn Austria into Orbanistan".

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (left) and FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl

(Bild: APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

"Straight into the arms of Putin"
What is meant is a "path out of a common Europe, straight into the arms of Putin and thus into the destruction of the rule of law and democracy", according to Kogler.

If the SPÖ comes into government, it wants to sue Hungary
SPÖ leader Andreas Babler also emphasized that the alliance presented shows what Austria faces if the FPÖ comes to power. "Kickl is emulating Orban and is aiming to introduce an illiberal democracy á la Orban," Babler warned in a press release. "Orban's policy stands for a Europe of walls and isolation, in which the right to asylum is boycotted." Babler reiterated his announcement to sue Hungary over its restrictive asylum policy as soon as the SPÖ is in government.

"The height of falsehood"
NEOS leader and party chairwoman Beate Meinl-Reisinger spoke of a "coalition of future and Europe destroyers". The fact that Orbán does not shy away from openly attacking freedom of the press and democratic structures and plunging his country into a swamp of corruption has already been clearly demonstrated in recent years. However, the fact that the FPÖ, of all parties, wants to form a coalition with someone who, like Orbán, also harasses Austrian companies in Hungary, is "a new peak of falsehood".

Lega leader welcomes right-wing alliance
Lega leader Matteo Salvini, on the other hand, welcomed the new alliance. His party has been working "for years" to forge an alliance that is as strong, patriotic and coherent as possible. "We welcome the statements made today by other party leaders that they are ready (to work together, editor's note)", said Salvini.

AfD not involved
Incidentally, the German AfD is unlikely to be involved. A spokesperson for AfD leader Alice Weidel told the TV channel ntv on Sunday that the AfD "cannot join a joint parliamentary group with Fidesz at this point". However, the new merger opens up "new opportunities for the party to cooperate with other parties, as the party landscape of the ECR and ID as a whole is on the move", the spokesperson said, according to the AFP news agency.

Weidel herself told the Phoenix channel that she did not see any business basis for renewed cooperation with the ID parliamentary group "in the near future". Weidel emphasized in particular the "good cooperation" with the FPÖ and said that new partners were being sought at EU level.