Tyrolean farmer steps down from ÖVP role after racist outburst

A Tyrolean vegetable farmer has stepped down as a local ÖVP official after a video showed him making racist remarks to a visitor at Munich’s Oktoberfest, ORF reports.

The video, viewed hundreds of thousands of times and shared and commented on thousands of times on social media, shows the farmer from the Hall area speaking with several colleagues and a Black influencer. The man repeatedly asks the influencer where he is from, then tells him to “go home” and says he does not belong there, adding that “the Germans” do and that they are “white”.

The ÖVP confirmed that the farmer had resigned as deputy local party chairman. Speaking to Bayerischer Rundfunk on Saturday, he said he had left the party with immediate effect.

Munich police told ORF they are examining whether to open an investigation. Food retailer Hofer is also reviewing whether to continue its business relationship with the farmer, who supplies it. “A collaboration in this form and against the background of such statements does not meet our expectations and is not acceptable to us,” the company said in a statement to ORF Tirol.