Austria’s Politcal Right Party Chief Calls For Law Banning ‘Political Islam’

Austrian Freedom Party leader (FPOe) Heinz-Christian Strache

I would call this a measured policy move:

He added that, otherwise, Austrians and Europeans “would come to an abrupt end.” 

He went on to say that the current cap on new arrivals introduced by the Austrian government last year that amounts to 37,500 asylum seekers per year does not actually change anything. 

He also criticized a proposal recently introduced by the center-right Austrian People’s Party (OVP), which involves the reduction of this cap by a half to 17,000 people per year. 

He denounced both measures as “laughable” and called for the “minus immigration policy,” which should involve not only a ban on all new arrivals but also an expulsion of all migrants and refugees, who entered Austria illegally or were involved in any crimes on its territory. 

“We need no cap and no halving of that cap – we need a zero immigration and in fact even negative immigration while all illegals and criminals [who are migrants] should be expelled from the country,” he said during the party meeting, as cited by the Austrian APA news agency. 

He also called for tougher measures against illegal migrants by saying that “those who try to enter [Austria] illegally, should be sent to a detention center.” 

He also said that such measures should be accompanied by an “efficient” law banning political Islam. 

He went on to stress that people who criticize the behavior of migrants “because it is misogynistic, anti-liberal and reflects a fascist worldview,” are not showing “hatred.” 

Those who find European democratic rules inappropriate “are free to return to their Muslim country,” Strache said, adding that Austria “has forced no one to come here.” 

“We do not want to leave the European Union, but we want a reform that would correct all its development failures,” he said, stressing that the “welcoming culture” demonstrated its inadequacy in the view of the terrorist attacks carried out in Europe over the past years. 

“It is not nationalism that people want, it is the nation state and partnership relations and cooperation” between European countries, he said, adding that “the nation state is not dead” as it is a “cultural achievement” and a “model of success” for Europe. 

Austria, which has a population of about 8.7 million people, received more than 130,000 claims for asylum from people coming from the Middle East and Northern Africa since the summer of 2015 and took in one of the greatest numbers of refugees per capita alongside with Sweden. Now about 600,000 Muslims, including those, who arrived during the refugee crisis, live in the Alpine country, accounting for about 7 percent of its population.

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