Letter to party leaders

MinistRABL? Antifa warns of Wels mayor

Andreas Rabl is seen by many as a moderate alternative in the FPÖ.(Bild: Wenzel Markus)

Time and again, the mayor of Wels, Andreas Rabl, is mentioned as a possible minister in the event of FPÖ participation in the federal government. He himself does not seem averse. In a letter to the Federal President and the party leaders, Antifa now warns against elevating Rabl to such an office.

He speaks carefully, always appears friendly in public and has undoubtedly had successes as mayor of Wels: Andreas Rabl is regarded as the blue antithesis to his federal party leader Herbert Kickl. While the verbal bully is currently a no-go even for the ÖVP as a coalition partner, Rabl is seen by many as a moderate alternative for government office.

Documentation of 14 "individual cases"
However, the Wels-based Initiative against Fascism (Antifa) has been working for some time to show that this clean-cut image is just a facade. At the beginning of June, it published documentation of a total of 14 right-wing "individual cases" since 2018, which, according to the organization, expose Rabl as a "wolf in sheep's clothing".

There can be no talk of moderation. Whether Kickl, Vilimsky, Haimbuchner or Rabl - there is no such thing as a moderate FPÖ.

Werner Retzl, Antifa-Vorsitzender

"Not tolerant and cosmopolitan"
"Mayor Rabl and his people have promoted right-wing extremist fraternities, discriminated against minorities, defamed those who think differently, left the city hall to a Holocaust trivializer, erected a replica of a brown cult object in the pedestrian zone and persisted in naming streets after Nazi criminals. They fought against a rainbow protection path as a sign of tolerance," says Antifa chairman Werner Retzl, summarizing the cases. His conclusion: "Andreas Rabl and his city FPÖ are as little tolerant, cosmopolitan and liberal as the FPÖ at state and federal level."

Appeal to the "leaders of the republic"
And because the parties are slowly warming up for the national election campaign, Antifa is now following up: it has sent the documentation of the "individual cases" to Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen, Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP), Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) and the party leaders of the SPÖ (Andreas Babler) and Neos (Beate Meinl-Reisinger). Their aim: the "leaders of the Republic" should "draw the right conclusions from the facts presented and not allow the FPÖ to come to power", hopes Retzl.