Controversial mayor expelled from FPÖ
The Local Austria - [email protected]
Published: 18 Sep, 2014 CET.
Updated: Thu 18 Sep 2014 09:39 CET
Austria's Freedom Party (FPÖ) expelled the mayor of the Carinthian market town of Gurk, Siegfried Kampl, from its ranks on Wednesday evening after he made controversial statements about National Socialism in an interview with the Kleine Zeitung.
In an online edition of the paper, Kampl was quoted as saying: "I distance myself only from what they have done, not from National Socialism."
FPÖ chairman, Heinz-Christian Strache, immediately moved to distance the party from Kampl's statements.
"Someone who flirts with National Socialism has no place in the FPÖ," announced Strache in a press release.
Carinthian FPÖ state party chairman Christian Ragger asked Strache to exclude Kampl from the party, because his statement posed an "imminent danger".
"Such statements are intolerable," said Ragger.
Kampl had previously caused offense in 2005 by referring to Wehrmacht deserters as "partly murderers of their comrades".
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In an online edition of the paper, Kampl was quoted as saying: "I distance myself only from what they have done, not from National Socialism."
FPÖ chairman, Heinz-Christian Strache, immediately moved to distance the party from Kampl's statements.
"Someone who flirts with National Socialism has no place in the FPÖ," announced Strache in a press release.
Carinthian FPÖ state party chairman Christian Ragger asked Strache to exclude Kampl from the party, because his statement posed an "imminent danger".
"Such statements are intolerable," said Ragger.
Kampl had previously caused offense in 2005 by referring to Wehrmacht deserters as "partly murderers of their comrades".
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