"Don't let it slide"

Kickl’s “favorite station”: FPÖ sues ORF

During the ORF “Summer Talk,” Kickl attacked the public broadcaster.(Bild: APA/HANS KLAUS TECHT)

“Today I’m on my favorite channel.” With these sarcastic words, FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl announced his appearance on ORF’s “Sommergespräch” last Monday on social media. The ORF and the FPÖ—that’s certainly no love story. Recently, the Freedom Party has even filed a lawsuit against the public broadcaster.

At the heart of the lawsuit is a “Report” program from this past spring that dealt with the FPÖ’s ties to the Identitarians. The program claimed, on the one hand, that ten to 20 parliamentary staff members of FPÖ lawmakers were being monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. At the same time, the report laments that anyone who applies for a permanent access pass to Parliament—whether a janitor or a cafeteria worker—is subjected to rigorous vetting by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for weeks on end. “Exception: the members of Parliament themselves and their parliamentary staff,” the report states. So the staff members are being monitored but not vetted. That sounds contradictory, but it is not the reason for the complaint.

According to the FPÖ, there is no surveillance of individual staff members. In a statement to the “Krone,” the party cites the 2025 Office for the Protection of the Constitution report, which states that four former Identitarian activists are or were employed as parliamentary staff members for FPÖ lawmakers. The FPÖ emphasizes that this does not imply either a security threat or surveillance.

Civil Lawsuit for Injunction
The Freedom Party is filing a civil lawsuit seeking an injunction against the ORF. The party and its parliamentary caucus are suing for defamation.

“Fierce debates over substance are part of politics. But when—as in this case—the sole aim is to damage the FPÖ’s reputation without presenting a single piece of evidence, then we cannot simply let this stand,” said FPÖ Secretary-General Christian Hafenecker.

In response to an inquiry, the ORF simply stated: “The ORF asks for your understanding that it cannot comment on an ongoing proceeding.”

During the “Summer Talk, ” Kickl quoted Wolfgang Peschorn—the short-term interior minister in the civil servant-led government and head of the Financial Procurator’s Office—as saying the following on this topic: “It is not an employer’s place to ask about political views, party affiliation, or membership in clubs and associations; these are private matters protected against discrimination.”

According to Kickl, no one’s political views are written on their forehead.