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Austria’s Nationalists Evoke Waldheim in Post-Scandal Vote Push

Austria’s Nationalists Evoke Waldheim in Post-Scandal Vote Push

(Bloomberg) -- Austria’s nationalist Freedom Party -- reeling from a scandal that toppled its leader and triggered a snap ballot -- is evoking one of the country’s most controversial election slogans as it tries to avoid a debacle at next week’s European vote.

Austria’s Nationalists Evoke Waldheim in Post-Scandal Vote Push

Its Facebook page and posts in social media reached out to voters with the slogan, “Jetzt erst recht,” or in English, “Now, more than ever.” It’s the same hot-button rallying cry used when Kurt Waldheim ran for Austrian president in 1986 after the exposure of his wartime experience as a German army officer.

It essentially cast Waldheim as victim, as Austria often casts itself as the first victim of Nazi Germany. The strategy worked for Waldheim, who served as Austrian president -- a largely ceremonial role -- from 1986 to 1992.

Austria’s Nationalists Evoke Waldheim in Post-Scandal Vote Push

The Freedom Party has been one of the most successful populist groups on the continent. But on Saturday, Heinz-Christian Strache, the party leader who had become vice chancellor, stepped down after video emerged showing him offering government contracts for campaign funding from a fake Russian millionaire and musing over the takeover of Austria’s biggest newspaper.

The scandal caused the country’s young chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, to cast off his junior partners in government and call for new elections. They’ll probably take place in September.

The Freedom Party made clear it still intends to make good on a predicted healthy showing in this week’s European Parliament vote. Waldheim’s old slogan appeared in posts on the Facebook ages of acting party chief Norbert Hofer, Interior Minister Herbert Kickl and that of Strache himself.

As the slogan suggests, Strache has made himself a victim: While he called his behavior on the video “dumb” and “embarrassing,” he also suggested there were “foreign intelligence services” behind it and said “this was a targeted attempt of political assassination, this was hired work.”

--With assistance from Boris Groendahl.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zoe Schneeweiss in London at zschneeweiss@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Matthew G. Miller at mmiller144@bloomberg.net, Ian Fisher, James Ludden

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