Austria Far-Right Leader Criticizes Germany's Merkel During Contentious Presidential Election Season

The head of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPO), Heinz-Christian Strache, labeled German Chancellor Angela Merkel as Europe’s “most dangerous woman” on October 24 while criticizing Germany’s immigration policies. Strache warned that Germany’s current open borders policy, which encourages the influx of migrants, could provoke civil war and remarked that the “uncontrolled influx of migrants alien to our culture who seep into our social welfare system ... makes civil war in the medium-term not unlikely.”

According to Strache, Chancellor Merkel’s promise that the migrant crisis would be efficiently controlled has not been upheld. Strache also noted that Merkel fails to recognize the threat that thousands of refugees arriving on the shores of Italy poses to Europe. He added that Germany’s refugee policy allows mass migration that is like a “criminal act” because it disregards the safety of Europe as a whole. Strache also called Merkel’s slogan to foster large-scale migration, “Wir schaffen es (We can do it)” a legitimate threat to Europe.

Strache’s comments do not directly represent the FPO’s political platform. Norbert Hofer, the party’s presidential candidate for the upcoming December elections, expressed more moderate views about migration policy. Hofer, who has earned the nickname of “the friendly face of FPO,” does not want to close European borders completely. However, as Hofer looks to win the election and broaden his base of supporters to include the anti-immigration and Eurosceptic parties, Strache’s outspoken stance on immigration policy has the potential to harm FPO’s presidential efforts.

FPO’s support is already soaring to 40 percent favorability in Austria. The rising popularity of right-wing parties in Austria is similar to the trend in Germany, where the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) gained more parliamentary seats in the most recent election. Latest polls show that the presidential race between the FPO’s Hofer and left-leaning Green Party’s candidate Alexander van der Bellen is neck-and-neck.