Interview on ORF

FPÖ’s Nepp has nothing against well-integrated Turks

All the polls show that Dominik Nepp will be one of the big winners in the Vienna elections.

(Bild: APA/Georg Hochmuth)

ORF anchor Armin Wolf and Viennese FPÖ top candidate Dominik Nepp exchanged blows in the "ZiB 2" studio on Monday evening. The Freedom Party leader also defended his "shit paper" posting about the daily newspaper "Der Standard".

The FPÖ has recently been criticized in some quarters for specifically courting Turkish voters. The blue politician Leo Lugner was recently a guest at an event organized by the Islamic association Atib and was looking for votes. This organization has already been described as radical by the Freedom Party. However, Nepp pointed out that Lugner was there as a private businessman and representative of Lugner City. In general, he has nothing against well-integrated Turks - he does not see the fact that they mostly belong to Islam as a problem, religion is a private matter.

"Better use of millions in asylum"
"Citizenship is not a gift, as Mayor Michael Ludwig likes to hand out," he emphasized almost simultaneously. The governor of Vienna is showering people with "asylum millions". Every year, the capital distributes 700 million euros to people without Austrian citizenship. However, the money would be better spent elsewhere, for example on more police officers, German teachers or pensioners.

Wolf and Nepp repeatedly talked past each other during the discussion. Nepp was aggressive, used his catchphrases and sometimes barely responded to questions.

Asked by the interviewer about his posting about the daily newspaper "Standard" ("shit paper") at the beginning of January, he emphasized that the red German Chancellor Willy Brandt had once called the "Spiegel" that and that Wolf's "left-wing bosom friend", "Falter" boss Florian Klenk, had used similar words to talk about a free paper.

Nepp faces election victory with the FPÖ
Nepp is running for the leadership of the Vienna FPÖ for the second time. In 2020, he suffered heavy losses as a result of the Ibiza scandal, but this year he is likely to be one of the big winners according to all the polls. "We will achieve a good result, whether you like it or not, Mr. Wolf." In the election campaign, he is focusing on classic liberal issues such as security and asylum.