The Embassy of Ukraine in Vienna has complained to the Austrian Foreign Ministry regarding an FPÖ election campaign poster, which, among other things, shows a very warm greeting from EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj in black and white. The Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform reported this on Wednesday followingnoon. The Austrian Foreign Office confirmed the facts in the evening.
“Manipulative and distorted”
As soon as the manipulative content of the FPÖ poster became known, the Ukrainian ambassador expressed strong criticism, Ukrinform quoted from a statement. “The embassy also sent an official note to the Austrian Foreign Ministry condemning the FPÖ’s strategy of manipulatively and distortedly explaining the reason and nature of the Russian war of aggression,” it said. This is, among other things, a mockery and insult to the Ukrainian people and creates the basis for justifying Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
“Amoral and disgusting”
The embassy would continue its active work and assume that the policy of misleading and lies, as well as attempts to justify Russian aggression, are absolutely amoral and disgusting, Ukrinform reported. The note from the Ukrainian embassy was received on May 1st, a spokesman for the Austrian Foreign Ministry said on request on Wednesday evening. “It was discussed during the Secretary General’s regular meetings with the Ukrainian ambassador on May 6,” he explained, without providing any further details.
The criticized poster, on which the FPÖ’s top candidate in the EU parliamentary elections, Harald Vilimsky, advertises himself with the slogan “Stop EU madness” and, among other things, the keyword “warmongering”, was presented for the first time on April 19th. “It’s enough because the sum of political madness has reached a level where you can only press the stop button,” Vilimsky explained the subject at the time.
