Heinz-Christian Strache

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HC Strache

Cover of a free leaflet distributed by the FPÖ in June 2006. "Duell um Österreich" ("Duel for Austria") is a continuation and expansion of the "Duell um Wien" ("Duel for Vienna") campaign of 2005. The flyer claims that, as opposed to Wolfgang Schüssel's ÖVP and Alfred Gusenbauer's SPÖ, the FPÖ is anti-immigration and against accession of Turkey to the European Union and says it stands for "social responsibility" and a low level of unemployment.

Heinz-Christian Strache (born June 12, 1969) is an Austrian politician, member of the Vienna city council and leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). He is considered a populist and right-winger by many people.

[edit] Rise to national party leader

Strache, who by training is a dental technician, has been active in local politics in Vienna since 1991. In 2004, he replaced Hilmar Kabas as the leader of the Vienna FPÖ. He had long been considered a disciple of long-time national party leader Jörg Haider, but began to take a position in opposition to him in the course of increased strife within the party in January 2005. After a series of losses in state elections, rumours spread that Strache would run for the office of national party leader against Haider's sister, Ursula Haubner. The high risk of Haubner's defeat probably was one of the events that induced Haider to set up a new party, the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ). After the split, Strache was elected national party leader of the FPÖ on April 23, 2005.

[edit] State elections and the campaign in Vienna

Since the split, the FPÖ's results in state elections have been mixed. While it dropped out of the Styria Landtag and was reduced to 5.7% in Burgenland, it did surprisingly well in the Vienna elections of October 2005, where Strache himself was the leading candidate, with a share of 14.9% of votes. Strache's campaign, which was widely considered xenophobic, included slogans such as:

Wien darf nicht Istanbul werden (varying a FPÖ-slogan of the Haider-aera: Wien darf nicht Chicago werden) (Vienna must not become Istanbul)
Daham statt Islam (at home instead of Islam)
Deutsch statt "nix verstehn" (German instead of "don't understand")
Pummerin statt Muezzin (Pummerin instead of muezzin)
Heimat im Herzen (homeland in the heart)
Arbeit statt Zuwanderung (jobs instead of immigration)

Jörg Haider said about Strache that if he, Haider, had run such a campaign, the press would have been all over him.

With Haider's BZÖ failing badly in all recent state elections and the FPÖ doing much better in the Vienna elections than expected, Strache now seems poised to rally the right-wing forces in Austrian politics behind himself.