The leader of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) on Saturday said his party does not want to leave the European Union, but called for an end to Brussels’ “climate communism.”
Herbert Kickl, who is likely to become Austria’s first postwar far-right chancellor in the coming weeks, told a crowd of around 3,000 supporters in Vösendorf near Vienna that “no Freedom Party member wants to leave the European Union.”
However, Kickl said that Brussels should enter a phase of “self-reflection” instead of “self-aggrandizement,” in the interests of the economy.
Bureaucracy should be cut, the FPÖ leader said, while advocating for the end of what he termed “climate communism.”
Kickl also repeated his demands to create a “Fortress Austria” that is hostile to immigration.
The country should introduce a range of “paragraphs and regulations, of benefits in kind instead of cash, of negative asylum decisions, of travel certificates, of deportation flights.”
Dealing with immigration is a question of fate for the continent far beyond Austria, said Kickl.
The 56-year-old – whose party has opposed EU sanctions on Russia – also rejected allegations that he is favourable to Moscow, instead arguing he has a “closeness to neutrality.”
Austria is committed to neutrality under its constitution and is not a member of NATO.
The FPÖ is currently negotiating with the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) over the formation of a government coalition.