Kickl criticized the fact that the editors Gernot Bauer and Robert Treichler gave the wrong names of his grandparents despite "months of research" and also gave false information about their origins and biographical details. "If I were in their shoes, I would be really embarrassed," he said in a video on the party's YouTube channel.

"If you go back to explain my personality, you should at least find the right grandparents. These are all things that are child's play to find out," the FPÖ leader mocks the authors of the book "Kickl and the Destruction of Europe", which was published on Monday.

Authors regret mistakes
In the book, Herbert Kickl's maternal grandparents are incorrectly named as Leopoldine and Johann Lackner. In fact, their names were Josefa and Josef Lackner. Shortly after the FPÖ announced Kickl's reaction video on Wednesday, which went online at 7pm that evening, the Zsolnay publishing house issued an erratum. The authors explained that they had made an "unfortunate mistake". They apologize to "all those named" and the error will be corrected in the second edition.

In his video, however, Kickl also addressed other biographical details that were incorrect in the book. For example, his maternal grandfather was neither the son of a building contractor nor did he work for an insurance company. Furthermore, he had not been in the anti-aircraft guns during the Second World War, but "with the tanks in the Russian war". His grandparents had also not divorced, as falsely stated, emphasized the FPÖ chairman.

Attack on the magazine
In general, Kickl accuses the authors of acting as "hobby psychologists" who want to "surf along on the FPÖ's wave of success and earn money with it". The politician, known for his verbal attacks on disagreeable media, linked the errors in the biography to the general activities of the "profil" editorial team. "What are we supposed to make of the quality of a lot of other alleged 'information' when such simple and verifiable things are completely misrepresented?" he asked rhetorically. The magazine, which has "never been a friend of the FPÖ" and where many journalists are considered "left-wing", is "a prime example of what I understand the 'system' to be", said Kickl.

In his video, the party leader stated that he had only "read a little into" the book about him. He did not say a word about his career, his rise in the FPÖ and how he "bullied his way to the top of the party", according to excerpts printed in "profil". In it, Kickl is characterized as extremely distrustful, especially towards the media. Regarding conversations with journalists as well as other politicians, it says: "In the end, he wants to be right".