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Anti-Turkish Propaganda Using Religious Discourse A Major Tool For Austria’s FPÖ
7 June 2009
The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), a far-right political party that has the third largest group in the country's Parliament, used opposition to Turkey's eventual membership to the European Union as a major tool during its campaigns, which were heavily loaded with religious discourse, before the European Parliament (EP) elections that are taking place in the country today. Despite all of the warnings of both Turkish and non-Turkish stakeholders not to make Turkey's pursuit of membership into the EU a trump card for domestic politics, primarily the representatives of the far-right ideologies in Germany, France, Bulgaria and Austria have been unwilling to forgo the possible political gains of adopting such discourses. A staunch holder of this strategy in Austria has been the FPÖ this year in its run-up to today's EP elections. Making politics by exploiting people's fears translated into anti-Turkish and anti-Muslim propaganda for the FPÖ, but its discourse contains anti-EU arguments, too. The party had initiated a petition titled “Austria, stay free,” aimed against the EU itself and its expansion to include Turkey; the petition was signed by more than a quarter million people countrywide last year. A discourse rebuked by all However, the FPÖ's way of doing politics, widely considered xenophobic particularly when the country is in an electoral cycle, has been receiving harsh criticism both from the state and the Catholic Church in Austria. In late May, the party's leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, was criticized by Viennese Archbishop Christoph Schönborn for using hate speech and particularly using Christianity as a tool in his discourse to garner support for his party's candidates standing in the EP elections. Strache had wielded a cross while addressing the protesters during a demonstration organized against the extension of an Islamic cultural center in the country's capital, which led to Schönborn's condemnation. The archbishop stressed that it was a misuse of the cross and lambasted this behavior. “It is rather a symbol of reconciliation and should never be used as a tool to fight against other religions or people,” he exclaimed. The FPÖ continuously called on their fellow countrymen to stand against the accession of Turkey into the 27-member bloc. One of the most commonly voiced slogans of the FPÖ for the last three months was “No to Turkey,” but the far-right political party's campaigns before today's EP elections in the country have been heavily loaded with anti-Muslim expressions, too. Posters reading, “Occident should be preserved as a fortress for Christianity,” were the primary images left stuck in people's memories from its rallies. The far-right political party's Vienna office had distributed brochures inciting hatred among the people of the country in April. The brochures were delivered door-to-door in Vienna with the headline “Fundamentalists advance,” where the photo presented in the body of the article features a Turkish flag waving before the background image of a minaret. Austrian President Heinz Fischer, who was elected to his current post from the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) in 2004, had rebuked Strache for his party's election campaign tactics. “The FPÖ's rhetoric constituted a violation of our consensus to keep politics and religion separate while respecting both,” he explained. Strache was not happy with any of those or similar critiques, but he particularly showed a stiff reaction to the statements that came from the Catholic Church, which he afterwards accused of being “faint-hearted and cowardly.” The leader of the far-right political party had previously declared his discontent for the support given by US President Barack Obama in early April for Turkey's accession to the EU, too. “If the American president is such a strong supporter of Turkey's admission and considers geographical factors unimportant, he can make Turkey the 51st US state,” were the words Strache uttered back then. In the meantime, attempts made by Sunday's Zaman to get comments on the FPÖ's religious-based anti-Turkish and anti-Muslim discourse from its federal office and their office in Vienna went unanswered. ‘They foment xenophobia in Europe' Experts of Turkey-EU relations and the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs are cautioning that such political discourses are fomenting xenophobia in Europe. The Foreign Ministry released a written statement on Friday and criticized the use of Turkey's bid to join the EU as a tool before the EP elections in general. “We follow such expressions with sorrow to which we cannot stay indifferent,” said the ministry, adding that they are fomenting xenophobia and it is good neither for Turkey nor for the EU. The statement also called on all parties involved to refrain from those expressions that may harm the relations between peoples. Anti-Turkish sentiments fueled by such political discourses were also translated last week into a discourteous attitude towards Turks living in the country. Those taking part in Traditional Turkish Day celebrations organized in Vienna were subjected to criminal acts. Some people threw several substances, including human excrement, onto the participants of the festival. The incident was documented by the police and proper action was pledged to be swiftly taken. Speaking to Sunday's Zaman, Professor Ahmet Arabaci of Fatih University said marginal ideologies are seeking to thrive especially in the EP elections because the turnout rates are lower than national elections. “Because of the neo-liberal crisis the world has faced due to globalization and the ongoing global economic turmoil, xenophobic ideas have gained strength in Europe. The political discourses adopted by some extreme parties are definitely exacerbating the already serious situation. Those discontent with their performance in domestic politics are aiming to foster support for themselves in the EP elections because only then their approach will be more visible,” he explained. Nonetheless, the far-right parties have considerable popular support in the country. While the center-left and center-right political ideologies suffered heavy losses in the September 2008 legislative elections, the FPÖ and Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) acquired an ever larger number of seats in the 183-seat National Council of Austria. The current coalition government's partners, center-left SPÖ and center-right Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), lost 26 seats compared to the previous elections in 2006. The FPÖ and BZÖ, on the other hand, managed to significantly expand their electoral base and secured 27 more seats. They are expected to receive a bigger popular backing at today's EP elections in the country.
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