“Remigration now”: Freedom Youth shocked at the city festival in Steyr

On Saturday there will be protests in Vienna against the march of the right-wing extremist “Identitarians”, in which neo-Nazis from Switzerland and Germany will also take part. Society should be sensitized before all dams break and right-wing extremism becomes socially acceptable again. Time to report on an incident in Steyr.

• also read: “L’amour toujours” – More and more racist incidents

During the town festival, horrified visitors had already pointed this out to Mayor Markus Vogl: At the Freedom Party Youth stand, one of the employees blatantly wore a T-shirt with the slogan “Remigration now!” including an airplane that was supposed to deport unwanted foreigners, asylum seekers and “non-assimilated citizens”. This is a reference to the inhumane “Remigration Master Plan” of the right-wing extremist Martin Sellner, once spokesman for the Identitarian Party.

No consequences for now

At the time, Vogl could not bring himself to at least intervene as a warning: he had no means of doing so. After more than a week of shock from the Steyr SP, Katrin Auer, City Councillor for Culture and SP District Party Chairwoman, responded sharply: “It is appalling that people are now appearing in public using terms with a clear right-wing extremist connotation. The word ‘remigration’ is the bad word of the year 2023.” It was absolutely unacceptable for the Freedom Party Youth stand to display a T-shirt with the right-wing extremist slogan “Remigration now!” and post it on Facebook. Auer was also shocked that one post even showed City Councillor Evelyn Kattnigg and Municipal Councillor David König with the man wearing the T-shirt. City Mayor Vogl also condemned this post in the strongest possible terms.

This openly inhumane appearance by the Freedom Party at the town festival, which is supposed to be a community festival for all the people living here and the guests of the town, has no consequences for the time being. According to reports, there was discussion within the SP about demanding that the Freedom Party youth be excluded from next year’s town festival – as many now feel would be appropriate – but the Steyr SP could not bring itself to take this step.

Helmut Zöttl, deputy mayor and FP district party chairman, has no problem with “remigration”, which is abused by the extreme right as a battle cry for ethnic cleansing: “That was the bad word of the year in 2023, but not now.” Where there is migration, there should also be remigration.