Heinz-Christian Strache could become a district councilor

The former party leader wants to replace his successor in the FPÖ to “ensure a common free family.” Its new president Nepp, on the other hand, argues that penance is part of reconciliation.

“It’s like in sports,” says Heinz-Christian Strache. You have to “wait until you have crossed the finish line”. Only then is it necessary to evaluate the result. Applied to the current situation of the former leader of the federal FPÖ party and now number one on the list of the “HC Strache Team”, this means: wait for the official final result of the elections to the Vienna city council. It is unlikely that there will be enough to pass to the state parliament.

But: Your list should be represented in some district parliaments. Based on the Sora Institute mandate forecast, this is likely to be the case in 16 out of 23 districts, for example in Favoriten, the Danube City and Floridsdorf, and also in Strache’s home district, Landstrasse. Strache could then act as a district councilor. It remains to be seen whether the former vice chancellor intends to do so. “We have not talked about anything yet,” says the team’s general secretary, Christian Höbart, it is not yet known where or how many terms they will be.

Strache had flirted to the end with an “earthquake” in the double-digit address. “Like a phoenix from the ashes” wanted to resurface after the video of Ibiza that had been made public, the issue of expenses that had arisen, his retirement as head of the FPÖ and the exclusion of the party. “Of course it would be nice and rewarding if a political miracle could succeed,” he militantly told “Kronen Zeitung” and “Puls 4” on election night.

If that is still not enough, and Strache does not want (wants) to become a district councilor, he has a plan in place: “I started working as an entrepreneur last year and will continue to be an entrepreneur.” then it also means that he will give up any ambitions in national politics if he does not want to confirm: “We will philosophize about that when the end result is there.”

Nepp: Strache doesn’t see “penance”

However, Strache already had an explanation ready for how the debacle could come about: “The voters are always right. And what you had to experience there from my successors and a top FPÖ leader who coldly and heartlessly caused the division that he did not want, because he wanted to follow a common path, he wanted to go to the Vienna elections together and then came the exclusion, which not only hurt many people, but also offended them ”. His successors had “really destroyed the free family in the long run.” They should be replaced, then “in the end, a common free family could secure again,” “what many want,” as Strache put it.

His successor in Vienna, Dominik Nepp, sees things differently. He highlighted in ORF that the “painful losses” that had to be started (the FPÖ fell from more than thirty to less than ten percent) were in any case due to the loss of confidence caused by the “Ibiza affair” caused by Strache . When asked if there could be a reconciliation with him, Nepp said: “The repentance” is part of a reconciliation and he hasn’t seen any of that from Strache to date.

(Red.)