Harald Wilimski: “The FPÖ has a name like America”

The FPÖ's main candidate for the EU elections appeared confused in an interview with Armin Wolff. Including incorrect numbers and creative interpretation of history.

Maybe he wanted to say something. But what exactly? Anyone who heard Harald Wilimski on “ZiB 2” yesterday might still be puzzled about it. It must be said: the FPÖ's leading candidate in the EU elections is not an inexperienced man. At one point in the live interview he surrounded himself with rhetoric that would have been more surprising.

Did Wilimsky notice? He was mostly amused by the questions. After concretely implementing an FPÖ pledge (how is that supposed to work that Austria will no longer accept an asylum application?) wordy but unapproachable. And sometimes it's a much less complicated “Yeah, don't let anyone in!”

The FPÖ politician has made no secret of his admiration for Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump. He embellished the question about Hungary with completely wrong numbers (inflation in Austria last year was 15 percent instead of 7.8). And the USA theme is, well, a creative interpretation of history. He downplayed the storming of the Capitol in 2021: there was no attempted coup – it was “propaganda by the left”. Can't even say what happened there: “a very controversial story.”

Wilimski spoke about international affairs with passion and many diversions. Perhaps this is one of the goals of the EU politician: to show that there is more. He monitored the world situation. and plays a role. When it came to the FPÖ's proximity to Russia, he told the FPÖ without any clear context that he was already sitting “at the Defense Minister's table in the Pentagon” in 2017 or 2018. Joint training programs for the armies were discussed. “You can't position yourself more neutrally or better between world powers,” Wilimski said.

But not only that, the digression went further: “We are in the middle of geopolitical interests, and I think it is good to look at Russian history through the mirror of that time – where everyone was from the federal president and the chancellor downwards – yes, to “In America, the FPÖ has a good name and I have made my small contribution to that.” Not only the thoughts but also the sentences were incomplete.

By the way, Vilimsky is against sanctions in the case of Russia (due to neutrality), but in favor of them in the case of Hamas. The FPÖ politician translated the fact that the explanation was not fully understood into praise of peace (“In both cases, I insisted on peace”).

The art of simplification often seems to be the recipe for success for FPÖ politicians. Things didn't quite work out for Wilimski on Wednesday. Coincidentally, this is revealed when someone hears variations of a sentence by the wolf: “Unfortunately I don't understand that”.

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