The meeting with FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl and others in the FPÖ had already been agreed before the inaugural meeting of the National Council, Rosenkranz explained on the ORF program “Hohes Haus” on Sunday. Orban then asked him for a meeting relatively quickly after his election as President of the National Council.
The original reason for Orban’s visit, whose Fidesz party sits in a joint parliamentary group with the FPÖ in the EU Parliament, was a newspaper discussion event about the war in Ukraine, which was also attended by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Rosenkranz said that it was in keeping with his nature and actually his job as president that foreign representatives, if they wanted to meet him or invite him, would also comply with protocol.
Rosenkranz would not invite any Identitarians
He described the question of whether he would also receive Russian President Vladimir Putin as “very sensitive”. But in principle his credo is: “You have to talk to everyone, especially if they are aggressors.” The prerequisite for a meeting with Putin, however, is that he would see the chance that this could be “even the smallest contribution to stopping this murder on the war front between Russia and Ukraine.” If it was about drinking a glass of wine from the Wachau, then not. Under no circumstances would Rosenkranz invite members of the Identitarians to parliament.
“You can rule out the possibility that members of the Identitarian Movement would be invited to an event in parliament or that they themselves would hold an event there,” said Rosenkranz in response to a question. The National Council President explained that he had never personally had anything to do with Identitarians; it was only at an election event in Wiener Neustadt that he was informed that Identitarians were present. However, on yesterday’s national holiday, Rosenkranz gave the former head of the Vienna Identitarians an interview for the broadcaster Auf1, which has been accused of right-wing extremism.
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Criticism of the interview and Orban’s visit came from the SPÖ on Sunday. The fact that the first foreign policy meeting between the new National Council President and Viktor Orban is taking place is “unbearable,” said SPÖ constitutional spokesman Jörg Leichtfried in a broadcast. It is also “absolutely unacceptable” if Rosenkranz has no fear of contact with the Identitarian Movement and even gives them an exclusive interview, said Leichtfried.
