"Damn serious time"

Scholz on Kickl: “He is an extreme right-winger”

For Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz, we are in "damn serious times".(Bild: APA/AP)

Germany's Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz is "very concerned" about developments in Austria with the possible chancellorship of FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl, as he recently stated. Now he has once again lashed out at Kickl at the SPD party conference in Berlin.

The campaigning German head of government, whose three-party coalition with the Greens and the FDP collapsed shortly before Christmas and who was confirmed as the SPD's candidate for chancellor at the party conference on Saturday, criticized the current attempts to form a government in Austria. Scholz said of the blue National Council election winner: "He is, there is no other way to put it, an extreme right-winger."

Herbert Kickl has come a big step closer to his goal.(Bild: APA/Helmut Fohringer)

For Germany's Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, we are in "damn serious times".(Bild: APA/AP)

"It is serious. It's a damn serious time," the SPD politician continued. The fact that a right-wing candidate is now likely to become head of government in the neighboring country "is not something we can simply accept". With this, the Social Democrat hinted at a difficult relationship between the two neighboring countries - assuming, of course, that both Kickl and Scholz meet as counterparts.

SPD down in 4th place
In a recent survey, the SPD is only in fourth place, with the CDU/CSU parties in the lead, followed by the AfD and the Greens. The Social Democrats will be playing catch-up at a party conference in Berlin. There, Scholz is to be officially confirmed as the red candidate for chancellor in the Bundestag elections on February 23. Scholz will also give the keynote speech to the 600 or so delegates.