Due to this paper, there was an uproar in the patriotic camp and the state FPO was heavily criticized. But now the questionable assessment of the situation by the black “State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Countering Terrorism” (LVT) of Upper Austria’s “Action Plan against Extremism” could become a target for the office and the ÖVP. FPÖ Upper Austria boss and deputy state governor. Manfred Hambuchner presented an extensive list of questions to the LVT today and appeared unusually sharp and courageous.
Guest article by Michael Scharfmuller, first published in Info-Direct
On September 28 there will be a subcommittee meeting on the topic of “extremism” in the Upper Austrian state parliament. Hambuchner gave it top priority today. Personally, he wants to use this opportunity to critically question “the methods and methods of functioning of LVT-Upper Austria”. So that the LVT representative cannot resort to excuses such as “I cannot answer this at all”, Hambuchner has already submitted his questions today. And the questions are tough!
Video of press conference:
Hambuchner wants to see evidence of LVT’s allegations
Hambuchner now wants to see facts for the nonsense that LVT provided as an assessment of the situation for the extremism plan, for example about fraternities. However, Hambuchner is not confident he will get proper answers from LVT. One reason for this, among other things, is that LVT-Upper Austria presented a “politically coloured, outdated report” to the federal authority without adapting Upper Austria and without updating it.
Constitutional protection in the service of ÖVP?
Why the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution gives so much space to patriotic tendencies in the report is very clear to Hambuchner: It has to do with the “political shadowing” of an authority that primarily targets its direct political competitors. Is. You don’t have to be a political insider to guess that Hambuchner was referring to his government partner, the ÖVP.
No resources for Islamists, antifa, and climate glue?
At the press conference, Hambuchner also criticized the misplaced importance of LVT in assessing the situation. Above all, the real threat of Islamism is not specifically mentioned, although there are many hints of it in Upper Austria. Many of the questions from the FPO Upper Austria focus on this region.
Haimbuchner also wants to interrogate the LVT representative about the activities of violent Antifa and their network. Hembuchner also wants to know This is why, despite many questionable actions, the so-called “climate glue” is treated extremely ambiguously in assessments of the situation., In this regard, Hambuchner says that the authorities treat “climate radicals” who constantly break laws unequally compared to peaceful critics of corona measures:
How will deliberate obstructions be viewed if workers loyal to their motherland barricade themselves on traffic routes in the border area to prevent illegal migration?
Misleading “right-wing extremism” statistics
When it comes to “right-wing extremism”, Hambuchner pointed out that there is a need to look very closely at what crimes are classified as “right-wing extremist” crimes in the authorities’ statistics. It is conceivable that depicting swastikas and Islamic anti-Semitism on liberal election posters would count as “right-wing extremist” acts. In this context, Hambuchner also demands special information about literature that the authorities classify as dangerous in relation to the “new right”.
If the authority does not answer all these questions, the relevant inquiries will be sent to the ÖVP Interior Minister through the Liberal Parliamentary Club.
DÖW Commission as declared bankruptcy by the Minister of the Interior
On behalf of Hembuchner there was explicit criticism of ÖVP Interior Minister Gerhard Karner. For Hambuchner, it is an “incredible security policy scandal” that the DÖW was commissioned by the Interior Ministry to prepare the right-wing extremism report:
“This is really a declaration of bankruptcy by the Interior Ministry that they are using private organizers and do not believe they have the capacity to deal with extremism.”
Media scolded instead of creating distance
The liberal Lieutenant Governor also criticized the media in this regard, which would hardly report it. In general, Hambuchner did not speak well to the established media at this press conference. He launched a scathing attack on a Courier journalist present at the press conference for his inaccurate reporting on the extremism plan and his poor preparation for the press conference., The FPÖ Upper Austria leader did not respond to Courier reporter Hambuchner’s attempts to distance himself from the “identitarian movement” and persuade Silvio Hemelmayer, head of the “Freedom Youth of Upper Austria”, to do so.
Apart from a few details, Hambuchner made an unusually strong and articulate presence at today’s press conference. In my opinion, the only time when defining the term “extremism” they should have used the definition that was used, for example, in the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution report in 2017. It states that only people and groups can be classified as “extremist”.
“Reject the norms and rules of a modern democratic constitutional state And Fight it with means of violence or approval.
More on this in this comment: Right-wing extremism: a word fighting against freedom of expression
background
At the end of July, the FPÖ Upper Austria approved an “Action Plan against Extremism”, in which almost the entire patriotic front of the party was criminalized, left-wing extremism was trivialized, and antifa associations were abandoned. For this the FPO Upper Austria faced a lot of criticism for several weeks (Info-Direct reported on this in detail and even organized a panel discussion about it). This criticism is now likely to ensure that Hambuchner at least wants to examine very carefully LVT’s assessment of the situation, which is contained in the “Action Plan”.
Questionnaire:
Here are the questions Haimbuchner wants LVT to address in the subcommittee: https://www.fpoe-ooe.at/wp-content/uploads/2023-09-20_fragenkatalogExtremismus.pdf
The opinions of guest authors do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Report24 editorial team.
