04/24/2012 Austria: Love of Country Rather Than Moroccans Thieves

Washington / Morocco News Board--- "Heimat -Liebe statt- Marokkaner Diebe " is not one of Joseph Goebbels Nazi slogans from the Third Reich era; it is rather the language on an election poster belonging to the Freedom Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs or (FPÖ )). The controversial slogan that reads in English “The love of country rather than Moroccan thieves” was the FPÖ’s candidate motto during the recent election for city council in Innsbruck, Austria.

The FPÖ never had a chance of winning a majority in Innsbruck city council even though it is the second largest political force in Austria; nevertheless, its candidate’s choice of wording that was intended to harass and insult the Moroccan community on one hand and show FPÖ’s tough anti-immigrant stand on the other made headlines around the world.  Several Austrian civic organizations and some Moroccan citizens residing in Austria threaten to sue the FPÖ for defamation.

The Moroccan embassy in Vienna issued a strongly worded statement describing FPÖ’s election slogan as "defamatory and discriminatory". For its part, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry summoned the Austrian ambassador in Rabat to convey the Kingdom’s “indignation and denunciation of this xenophobic act"

As news stories propagated and the fury over the racist nature of FPÖ’s campaign began to gain momentum, Austria State prosecutor in Innsbruck launched an investigation and subsequently banned the posters on the ground of "inciting hatred".

During my weeklong visit to Austria, I did not encounter many Moroccan immigrants. In fact, Moroccan immigration to Austria is a new phenomenon with most of the immigrants congregating on cities near the Italian borders. The small Moroccan community in Innsbruck is composed of undocumented young men who fled the economically depressed Italy looking for better job prospects in Austria.

For the   FPÖ, an Austrian political party that counts among its highs ranking members personalities with past Nazi connections and known anti-Semitic tendencies, a racist campaign of singling-out an ethnic group for persecution brings back memories of Austria’s sinister role in the persecution of its Jewish community during the Nazi era.

The FPÖ national leadership attempted to portray the Innsbruck “incident” as a local matter but its office in Vienna could not explain how the picture of the FPÖ  national leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, ended up on the racist poster, reported the Viennese press . Mr. Strache went beyond the pale by claiming that his party sympathizers, who were allegedly persecuted, and are now the "new Jews" of Austria.

On a different front,that underscores the  FPÖ  true xenophobic ideology that goes beyond its usual Islamophobia , Austria’ Freedom Party has  denounced the city of Vienna’s decision “to remove the name of a late mayor known for his anti-Semitic from a section of Vienna’s posh Ring avenue, a change hailed by Jewish Representatives” the Associated Press reported Thursday.

Local human rights activists view the FPÖ's Innsbruck campaign as a stab by the Austrian far-right to prey on the small and defenseless Moroccan community for political and electoral gains. The FPÖ’s leadership decision to adopt such inflammatory language without concern of potential ramifications from such campaign on the image of Austria is an indicator of the unprecedented level of hatred, brazenness and insolence certain European extreme-right groups abhor toward non-European immigrants.

 The FPÖ’s anti-Moroccan campaign is a preview of what future European far-right political parties campaigns will look like. To be “fair” to the FPÖ, other European far-right and fascist organization experienced with such racist tactics in the past. The Northern League in Italy, the National Front in France and the Nationalist Catalan Party (CiU) are few of the European far-right parties that have used scare tactics to frighten voters to vote for their extremist agenda.

As Economic woes continue to bedevil European economies, Europe’s vulnerable immigrant populations will continue to be an easy target for groups like the FPÖ.