Heinz-Christian Strache (born 12 June 1969) is an Austrian politician, member of parliament, former member of the Vienna city council and political leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). He is a right-wing politician and an efficient populist. He prefers to call himself just 'HC' Strache.
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Strache, who by training is a dental technician, has been active in the politics of Vienna since 1991. In 2004, he replaced Hilmar Kabas as the leader of the Vienna FPÖ. He had been considered a disciple of long-time national party leader Jörg Haider, but began to oppose him as the result 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 was probably 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 23 April 2005.
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 surpassed expectations in the Vienna elections of October 2005. Strache himself was the leading candidate in Vienna, and the party received 14.9% of votes. Strache's campaign, included slogans such as:
Jörg Haider said about Strache that if he, Haider, had run such a campaign, the press would have been all over him.
In the 2010 Vienna elections for mayor, city council, and district councils, Strache's party received 26% of the vote and increased their number of seats in the city council to 27. [1] His support was strongest among young people under 30. [2]
The campaign included slogans such as:
Strache was once again accused of xenophobia during his campaign and responded formally in the press to the allegations. [3]
Stills taken from a video shot in the late 1980s were published in January 2007 showing a uniformed Strache allegedly participating in paramilitary training activities. Other people on the pictures were claimed to be known neo-Nazis. Strache has denied the allegations, claiming the pictures are of him playing paintball as an 18-year old. In his initial reaction, then Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer referred to the incident as a "folly of youth" (Jugendtorheit)[4].[5]
At the end of January, further pictures were published, allegedly showing Strache performing a Nazi salute (the Kühnen salute). Strache denied the allegations prior to publication of the pictures. After publication, Strache argued that the picture showed him ordering three beers and was not a Nazi salute. Austrian Jewish community leaders criticized the government for its lack of response.[5]
| Preceded by Hilmar Kabas (interim) |
FPÖ Party Chairman since 23 April 2005 |
Succeeded by --- |
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