Austrian deputy leader endorses far-right term 'population replacement'
Source: The Guardian
Austrian deputy leader endorses far-right term 'population replacement'
Heinz-Christian Strache says term associated with extreme right is a term of reality
Philip Oltermann
Mon 29 Apr 2019 14.01 BST Last modified on Mon 29 Apr 2019 16.20 BST
Austrias deputy leader has said his party is fighting against a replacement of the native population, endorsing a term usually employed by the extreme right, as the countrys rightwing populists double down on their rhetoric before the European elections.
Heinz-Christian Strache, the deputy chancellor in Austrias conservative-nationalist coalition government and the leader of the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ), told the Krone newspaper on Sunday that his party was consistently following the path for our Austrian homeland, the fight against population replacement, as people expect of us.
When the interviewer interjected to say population replacement was a term associated with rightwing extremists, Strache replied that it was a term of reality, adding: We dont want to become a minority in our own country. Thats legitimate and fair and deeply democratic.
The term great replacement, which originated in a 2012 book of the same title (
Le Grand Remplacement) by a French author, Renaud Camus, has been taken up by rightwing extremist groups and was the title of a manifesto written by the gunman who carried the attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March.
Straches use of the term was praised in a video by Martin Sellner, head of the Austrian branch of the far-right Identitarian Movement, which the Austrian government is contemplating banning over its links to the Christchurch gunman.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/29/austrian-deputy-leader-endorses-far-right-term-population-replacement