Manfred Haimbuchner has a good chance of becoming Austrian Chancellor in the autumn – and thus the first head of government to be nominated by the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). The leading candidate is Herbert Kickl, but the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), which is currently in power, has announced that it will never elect him as Chancellor. Haimbuchner could be the FPÖ’s compromise candidate. The lawyer has a doctorate and has been Vice Prime Minister of Upper Austria since 2015, in a coalition with the ÖVP. He is the father of two children.
WELT: Mr. Haimbuchner, is the FPÖ a bourgeois party?
Manfred Haimbuchner: Of course. Civic values and civil rights are central to us. We are not façade conservatives.
WELT: But the FPÖ repeatedly denigrates its political opponents and thereby polarizes society in Austria. At party conferences and in parliament, politicians from the conservative governing party ÖVP are insulted as “torturers,” “black losers,” “jokes,” “slowworms,” ”liars,” or “nutcases.” Defamation instead of respect – that is not civil.
Haimbuchner: From my experience over the past few years, I would say that certain rhetorical terms are a means of achieving coverage in a very clearly defined market. The FPÖ has repeatedly found that when we argue objectively, journalists and other listeners often do not take them seriously. That surprised me. Personally, I do not find every formulation pleasant. On the other hand, I also know that the finer point often does not resonate.
WELT: So the end justifies the means.
Haimbuchner: We should keep things in perspective. On the other hand, I am also surprised at how quickly FPÖ politicians in Austria are labelled as extremists by respected commentators.
WELT: What values are important to you?
Haimbuchner: Politically: achievement, home and security. Personally: the family, as a community of man and woman from which children are born. The family is the most important community of solidarity in life. A society functions better the more it can rely on intact families.
WELT: Does this also include same-sex families?
Haimbuchner: Personally, I have no problem with that. There are same-sex partnerships in the FPÖ too. But I am strictly against same-sex partners being allowed to adopt children, even though I of course know that this is legally possible.
WELT: Many years ago you founded a liberal club that fosters intensive exchange between politicians and entrepreneurs. You always emphasize the idea of performance. Why?
Haimbuchner: Without performance, coexistence does not work. Without performance and innovation, there is no prosperity. For me as a right-wing liberal, it is clear that all people are equal in dignity. But the principle of performance also serves to ensure that some cannot make themselves comfortable and live off the performance of others. But that is precisely what the tax systems in Germany and Austria encourage. But it is also clear that those who are not able to achieve much due to health reasons must be helped by the community of solidarity. In coexistence in a society, there are natural rights and duties. The duties of the individual also include a willingness to perform and take responsibility. The state should intervene as little as possible in this.
WELT: Which laws would the FPÖ enforce first if they were to become chancellor in the autumn?
Haimbuchner: Firstly: Strict rejection of illegal migrants to safe European third countries such as Hungary. Such pushbacks have been carried out for years, including by social democratic interior ministers. This is about our national security. I do not want to see any more new asylum seekers in Austria. We do not want parallel societies, as in some places in Germany. We do not want to see only two Austrian children in a class of 25 pupils. Those who allow this are the enemies of the constitution.
WELT: Now you are exaggerating enormously.
Haimbuchner: No, because it is doing massive damage to our country and our coexistence. The recent assassination attempts on police officers in Germany and Austria in broad daylight on the street unfortunately prove that I am not exaggerating.
WELT: What else would the FPÖ promote as a governing party?
Haimbuchner: Secondly, we will move away from the Brussels Green Deal, which has been reinforced in Austria. It places unfair and anti-business burdens on citizens and companies. We will not bow to the utopians from Brussels. Thirdly, we will be more self-confident in the EU. Of course, an FPÖ chancellor will negotiate seriously, but Brussels should realise that we are a sovereign country and not a voting cattle for the purpose of achieving unanimity. And we will certainly look for partners in Brussels who will breathe life into the principle of subsidiarity again.
WELT: Would the FPÖ support further sanctions against Russia in Brussels, which would require unanimity?
Haimbuchner: What sense would that make? The goal must be to end the war, if possible through dialogue. Sanctions are not the right way to do this, as the past has clearly shown.
WELT: Would the FPÖ support a collaboration between Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia and the right-wing populist party of Marine Le Pen, the Rassemblement National (RN)?
Haimbuchner: We deal with reality and not with hypothetical alliances.
WELT: Was the exclusion of the AfD from the Identity and Democracy group in the EU Parliament right?
Haimbuchner: The FPÖ voted against it, there is nothing more to say.
WELT: FPÖ leader Kickl recently announced a “go home plan” and said: “Remigration is the trump card.” Don’t you find that disgusting?
Haimbuchner: Why? Our party chairman is demanding nothing other than the enforcement of laws: people who are in our country illegally should be deported and remigrate, i.e. return to their home countries. By this we mean the repatriation of people who do not have a legal residence permit.
WELT: So by “remigration” you do not mean the deportation of so-called non-assimilated Austrians or people with dual citizenship?
Haimbuchner: No.
WELT: Would the FPÖ form a coalition with the ÖVP as a junior partner?
Haimbuchner: I support cooperation between centre parties, such as the ÖVP, and right-of-centre parties, such as the FPÖ. I don’t have a camp mentality here. If the ÖVP offers its cooperation to a government led by the FPÖ, I would expressly support that.
WELT: But the ÖVP does not want to work in a coalition with the FPÖ under Chancellor Herbert Kickl. Do you, as the liberal politician with the most government experience, come into play?
Haimbuchner: If we win the election with our top candidate Herbert Kickl, he has a natural claim to the chancellorship. It is a bad habit that is spreading in democracies that parties dictate to their democratic competitors who is acceptable and who is not. I would never think of telling the ÖVP who they should appoint as state minister in Upper Austria.