No neo-Nazi alarm on Austria says Salvini

Respect popular vote, FPO will be at Pontida says League chief

By: ansa.it

Sep 30 2024
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No neo-Nazi alarm on Austria s

There is no danger of neo-Nazism rearing its head in Austria, Deputy Premier, Transport Minister and rightwing League party leader Matteo Salvini said after Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Monday said Austria needs a government led by conservatives that excludes the Freedom Party (FPO) after it scored the first far-right national parliamentary election win in the country since World War II, ahead of the ruling conservative Austrian People's Party, with the Forza Italia (FI) leader saying "neo-Nazi resurgence must be rejected".
    Salvini said about the FPO, which is in the European Patriots group along with the League and other hard right nationalist parties: "It is a beautiful result for our allies. This morning someone was talking about Nazism: either there is someone who sleeps badly, who eats heavily, because I don't think there is a neo-Nazi alarm in France, or in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands".
    Speaking on the sidelines of a convention of municipalities group ANCI Lombardia, the League leader, whose formerly secessionist and now 'sovereigntist' party is a partner of Tajani's centre-right post Berlusconi, FI, added: "When citizens vote you have to respect the popular vote.
    "If the Austrians have decided that the first party is the Party of Freedoms, which has the issues of security, fight against illegal immigration, defence of work and family, among their priorities, it means that this is how the Austrians think.
    "They will be at Pontida and nobody will be offended," Salvini concluded, referring to the League's annual rally at its mythical birthplace in northern Italy.
    Paolo Borchia, head of the League delegation to the European Parliament, also criticised Tajani for calling the FPO neo-Nazis.
    "It is ridiculous to call the Fpö Nazis," he said.
    "Curious but moody are the post-vote analyses coming from the parties that have been misruling in Europe for years," he said "When establishment forces are soundly rejected at the ballot box, they start seeing fascists and Nazis everywhere.
    "Politically unacceptable, a few hours after the commemoration of the (WWII SS) Marzabotto massacre, to talk about fascism and Nazism, using horrors instrumentally with a practice that belongs to the left without arguments.
    "It is the voters who decide in Austria, not Tajani." The deputy premier, foreign minister and FI leader had earlier said he thought a form of government led by conservatives that excludes the Freedom Party "is necessary" in Austria.
    "Political battles are always won at the centre to prevent right-wing and left-wing extremists from creating damage.
    "Any Neo-Nazi resurgence must be rejected", Tajani told Rainews a day after the elections in Austria.
    "The far right alone is never able to win, as we have seen in France", he said.
    Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally is another member of the Patriots group along with Hungarian strongman Vikto Orban's Fidesz.