02/24/2023 06:52 (act. 02/24/2023 06:52)
Federal FPÖ party chairman Herbert Kickl has been particularly notable in recent days with attacks on federal president Alexander van der Bellen. ©APA/MANFRED FESL
Guest commentary by Johannes Huber. With his attacks on Federal President Van der Bellen, the FPÖ leader expresses his attitude.
It is understandable that FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl is not on good terms with Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen. After all, he said (in essence) that he can hardly count on the task of forming a government; even if his party came first in the next National Council election.
It’s also understandable that the FPÖ leader expresses himself a bit more violently with a beer by his side on political Ash Wednesday. That’s a tradition. However, he is profound when he describes Van der Bellen as the “biggest threat to democracy and the state” who should be removed from office.
The reason is irrelevant here. Kickl questions Van der Bellen’s repeated and unequivocal condemnation of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine; that he shows non-military solidarity with Ukraine; and that he expresses that this war is also directed against peace and freedom in the West as a whole. Even if you don’t share it, it goes like this: Van der Bellen did not violate any duty, he did not break the constitution.
Kickl’s Ash Wednesday attacks, which, according to a “standard” report from the Jahnturnhalle in Rieder, also included terms like “this mummy in the Hofburg”, may serve to keep his own supporters happy and mobilize them with with a view to an upcoming election.
Above all, the attacks are a sign of democratic disrespect: no one in this republic expresses the will of the sovereign more than the federal president. He is directly elected. By absolute majority. Van der Bellen recently polled 56.7 percent or 2.9 million votes. His opponents like to put this in perspective and report that the turnout was only 65.2%, so you can’t really talk about such a huge majority. In this respect, the FPÖ candidate, Walter Rosenkranz, would not have reached 17.7, but just over eleven percent. And on second thought, Kickl would have to state with regret after a triumph in the upcoming National Council elections that there is no reason to celebrate, given the turnout. Which of course he won’t.
The game is transparent: according to all the rules, Van der Bellen is elected Federal President by a clear majority. You can and should criticize him if you feel there is a reason to. But if you treat him as rudely as Kickl and describe him as a threat to democracy and the state and demand his transfer, you are opposing the sovereign who legitimized Van der Bellen. Only an enemy of democracy can do that.
Johannes Huber runs the blog dieSubstanz.at – analysis and policy background