Austria saw 30% spike in right-wing extremist acts in 2023

GENEVA

Austria experienced a spike in right-wing extremist acts in 2023, when such offenses rose by 30.2% compared to the previous year, according to a domestic intelligence service report.

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, head of the Directorate General for Public Security Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, and his deputy Sylvia Mayer presented excerpts of the report in Vienna on Thursday. The full report is due to be published online at the weekend.

Karner said that the authorities recorded at least 1,208 acts of right-wing extremism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, or antisemitism last year. However, only 65.5% of the crimes could be solved by law enforcement.

Besides right-wing extremism, he mentioned four other challenges for the domestic intelligence service, namely attacks by the Daesh/ISIS terrorist group, the emergence, and arming of the so-called Reichsbürger movement, as well as espionage, and disinformation.

Concerning right-wing extremism, Haijawi-Pirchner said: “We are talking about old right-wing groups, such as skinheads, and new right-wing groups. The latter includes the Identitarians, for example, or DO5.”

The Identitarian Movement Austria (IBO) is an extreme right-wing group of the New Right, founded in 2012. DO5 is an offshoot of the IBO.

According to recent surveys, there are alleged regular contacts between the strongest political force in Austria, the right-wing conservative and anti-immigration FPO, the Identitarian Movement, and neo-Nazis.

For instance, leader of the IBO, Martin Sellner, and a former employee of FPO politician Christian Hobart were on board the “Defend Europe” campaign, where members of the Identity Movement from Europe chartered the ship “C Star” in 2017 to prevent refugees from reaching Europe in the Mediterranean.

In 2021, brass knuckles, pieces of ammunition, and cell phone photos relating to National Socialism were found during a search of the home of former FPO federal and national councilor Hans Jorg Jenewein.

According to the Austrian judiciary, the findings revealed a “clearly National Socialist attitude.”

In July 2023, members of the FPO youth took part in an Identitarian demonstration in Vienna under the slogan “Remigration.”