Vienna (OTS) – In part 3 of the Ö3 summer talks in “Breakfast with Me” (June 30), FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl was a guest of Claudia Stöckl.
On Ö3, Herbert Kickl was conciliatory towards former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, at whose suggestion he was removed as Interior Minister in 2019. “I don’t have any current topic with him,” Kickl replied to Claudia Stöckl, replicating a statement from Sebastian Kurz at a business talk in Vienna this week, in which he stated that he “has no unfinished business with Kickl.” In the Ö3 summer discussion, Kickl denied the rumor that there had been a discussion with Kurz, but, according to the FPÖ top candidate: “He once contacted me and we considered it, but that is it then it didn’t come about and it’s not necessary. I just find it interesting that Kurz sees a lot of things a little differently now than he did at the moment of the decision. This is a learning process and you should give it credit. The SPÖ has its Doskozil and the ÖVP now has Sebastian Kurz, who sometimes represents more sensible views than the current ÖVP leadership.”
Would he like Kurz to make a comeback at the top of the ÖVP? “I don’t want anything at the top of the ÖVP. Which does not concern me. However, if Karl Nehammer, as the incumbent Chancellor, offers the challenger a duel, then I would be happy to accept it. Then we should also play through the rules of the duel. If I lose this duel, if we don’t come first, then the Freedom Party will have no claim to the chancellor. So I would never be the second or third person to come up with the idea of saying ‘but I want to be Chancellor’ and it surprises me that neither Karl Nehammer nor Mr. Babler from the SPÖ would say this sentence.”
Would he have achieved his dreams with the chancellorship? “It’s not something you wish for because it’s such a great position, it’s almost a burden,” says Kickl. And further: “But I feel a responsibility – and that is a heavy backpack that I carry around with me.”
In the Ö3 summer discussion, Herbert Kickl also addressed Austria’s team boss Ralf Rangnick, who, among other things, warned in the ZiB2 about “right-wing extremism that is coming to power” and that “people should be vigilant with their right eye and learn from history. Kickl said on Ö3: “You shouldn’t be blind in your left eye either. I would like to pass this on to Mr. Rangnick. I don’t feel affected at all here. If you then believe that a democratic party like the Freedom Party can brandish the Nazi club – I don’t know whether he meant us, I hope not – then that is a gross form of it Trivializing the horrors of National Socialism.”
Hebert Kickl also announced in the Ö3 summer talk that he no longer wants to be in politics in ten years: “I will no longer be in any public function.” And he also talked about his wife, a lawyer at the Ombudsman’s office, with whom he has been in a relationship for 26 years and married for six years: “She is a wonderful witness that I am not as evil as my political opponent assumes I am , because otherwise she wouldn’t be there for a long time.”
For anyone who missed the broadcast, the audio excerpts are available to listen to online on the Ö3 homepage (oe3.ORF.at) and on ORF-Sound, and the entire conversation is available in the Ö3 “Breakfast with Me” podcast.
The Ö3 summer talks in “Breakfast with Me” with Claudia Stöckl – the top candidates in person – every Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Hitradio Ö3.
Questions & Contact:
Hitradio Ö3 public relations
Petra Kulis-Jesenko
01/87878/19120
petra. backdrop@orf.at