Heinz-Christian Strache

Heinz-Christian Strache (born June 12, 1969) is an Austrian politician, member of parliament, former member of the Vienna city council and political leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). He is considered a populist and right-wing politician.

Rise to national party leader

Strache, who by training is a dental technician, has been active in local politics in Vienna since 1991. In 2004, he replaced Hilmar Kabas as the leader of the Vienna FPÖ. He had been considered a disciple of long-time national party leader Jörg Haider, but began to oppose him as the result of increased strife within the party in January 2005. After a series of losses in state elections, rumours spread that Strache would run for the office of national party leader against Haider's sister, Ursula Haubner. The high risk of Haubner's defeat was probably one of the events that induced Haider to set up a new party, the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ). After the split, Strache was elected national party leader of the FPÖ on April 23, 2005.

State elections and the campaign in Vienna

Since the split, the FPÖ's results in state elections have been mixed. While it dropped out of the Styria "Landtag" and was reduced to 5.7% in Burgenland, it surpassed expectations in the Vienna elections of October 2005. Strache himself was the leading candidate in Vienna, and the party received 14.9% of votes. Strache's campaign, which was widely considered xenophobic, included slogans such as:

*"Wien darf nicht Istanbul werden" (Vienna must not be allowed to become Istanbul). A variation on an FPÖ slogan from the Haider era: "Wien darf nicht Chicago werden". Vienna has a significant Turkish minority, the FPÖ is opposed to Turkish EU membership and it refers to the defeat of the Ottoman empire in the Battle of Vienna in 1683, a symbolic historic victory of the West over Islam.
*"Daham statt Islam" (at home, not Islam)
*"Deutsch statt "nix verstehn" (German, instead of "I don't understand")
*"Pummerin statt Muezzin" (Pummerin, not muezzin). Pummerin is the main bell in St. Stephan's Cathedral in Vienna, and so a religious Christian symbol in Vienna.
*"Heimat im Herzen" (homeland at heart)
*"Arbeit statt Zuwanderung" (jobs, not immigration)

Jörg Haider said about Strache that if he, Haider, had run such a campaign, the press would have been all over him.

Neo-nazi allegations

Stills taken from a video shot in the late 1980s were published in January 2007 showing a uniformed Strache allegedly participating in paramilitary training activities. Other people on the pictures were claimed to be known neo-Nazis. Strache has denied the allegations, claiming the pictures are of him playing paintball as an 18-year old. In his initial reaction, Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer referred to the incident as a "folly of youth" ("Jugendtorheit") [cite web |title=ORF (Austrian national broadcaster) |url=http://steiermark.orf.at/stories/168293/] . "Dateline World Jewry", April 2007, World Jewish Congress]

At the end of January, further pictures were published, allegedly showing Strache performing a Nazi salute (the Kühnen salute). Strache denied the allegations prior to publication of the pictures. After publication, Strache argued that the picture showed him ordering three beers and was not a Nazi salute. Austrian Jewish community leaders criticized the government for its lack of response.

References

External links

* [http://www.hcstrache.at Strache's website]