"Herbert Karner"

Before the election: several political hoppalas in the final

Köllner at the border at the SPÖ rally.

(Bild: Charlotte Titz)

A Hungarian asylum camp that is not officially planned; Austria's interior minister mistaken for a university lecturer - Pannonian "upsets" before the ballot.

Officially, the election campaign in Burgenland is over. Migration and asylum were the "hottest topics" right up to the end. "The topic of security has FPÖ written all over it," trumpeted Freedom Party state chairman Alexander Petschnig.

Drawing attention to the problem
While Hungary's government let the public know after days of excitement on both sides of the border that no refugee camp was planned in Vitnyèd, but rather a vacation camp for young people, six local leaders, deputies and a municipal council member of the SPÖ from the Seewinkel region marched to Pamhagen to once again draw attention to the fundamental problem of refugee arrests and smuggler arrests in this country.

"Embarrassing ignorance"?
"We have already achieved great things in the humanitarian field", emphasized Maximilian Köllner, SPÖ National Councillor and Mayor of Illmitz. His video message caused astonished head-shaking on social networks shortly afterwards. The ÖVP then accused the SPÖ not only of "scaremongering and populism due to the false report of the refugee camp in Hungary", but also of "embarrassing ignorance".

Confusion surrounding the country's highest representatives
In his post, Köllner criticized ÖVP Interior Minister "Herbert Karner" due to a large number of asylum applications. Herbert Karner? The university lecturer, a luminary of art history, must not have felt addressed. He was referring to Gerhard Karner, a political professional in the federal government.

Maximillian Köllner in the "asylum video".

(Bild: Grammer Karl/Karl Grammer)

"It's questionable when a member of the National Council doesn't know the names of the highest representatives of our country," remarked Patrik Fazekas, the ÖVP's regional managing director, stunned. The SPÖ was not surprised by Köllner's slip of the tongue. On the contrary, the Social Democrats' club chairman Roland Fürst raised the question of why a vacation camp for young people needed meter-high barbed wire fences, police surveillance and dozens of barracks beds.