Identitarians distribute flyers outside Vienna schools

Far-right Identitarians distributed flyers outside secondary schools in Vienna and promoted the action on social media, ORF reported. Authorities are checking whether laws were broken, and government officials have criticised the campaign.

The flyers were handed out on streets near schools in Hietzing and Floridsdorf, not on school grounds, where distribution is prohibited. Their message called for a homogeneous society and opposed foreigners. Videos posted on a newly created Instagram account referred to “submission” and showed the son of a prominent German far-right activist and a representative of the Freedom Party of Austria’s youth wing in Upper Austria.

Albrecht Bauer, head of the Fichtnergasse federal secondary school in Vienna’s 13th district, told Ö1’s midday news programme that pupils had responded well to the propaganda. He said the incident would be used to highlight the values of diversity, solidarity and an open school culture, which the flyers had portrayed negatively.

Vienna’s education directorate said it was in close contact with the affected school heads. It said neither the directorate nor the schools were responsible for flyers distributed outside school grounds. However, officials are considering whether they could take action if schools are identifiable in social media videos, according to a report by the magazine profil.

Bernhard Weidinger of the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance said the campaign reflected a pattern of division of roles. He said Identitarian activists might appeal to a different group through more provocative actions than those taken by Freedom Party youth organisations. Weidinger added that the movement’s public faces had recently been almost exclusively German, possibly because recruitment in Austria was not yet going well.

The federal Freedom Party did not comment. The party in Linz said it would discuss the matter internally. Party leader Herbert Kickl and Upper Austria party leader Manfred Haimbuchner have recently stressed the importance of gaining influence in what they call the “pre-political sphere”, including media, universities, schools and culture.

Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger of the NEOS party said extremist ideas had no place at schools. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner and State Secretary for the Interior Jörg Leichtfried said the Identitarians were under surveillance and that the domestic intelligence service would intervene if laws were broken. Leichtfried also said the government’s action plan against right-wing extremism was nearly complete and would address campaigns of this kind.

Social Democratic Party lawmaker Sabine Schatz announced a parliamentary inquiry to Karner and Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr. She said she wanted to know what the ministries knew about the actions and what steps were being taken to protect children and young people from far-right extremists.