Herbert Kickl, leader of the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), has scored a final win in a year-long legal dispute against a political opponent who indirectly compared him to Adolf Hitler.
Yesterday, Austrian newspaper Die Presse disclosed that the Supreme Court of Austria (OGH) had rejected an appeal by left-wing non-governmental organisation (NGO) Plattform Österreich.
The appeal was against an earlier judgment by a Vienna court that found the NGO had defamed Kickl by likening him to a modern-day Hitler.
Plattform Österreich was founded and managed by Robert Luschnik, a former Greens party politician who is now working in a leading role for the liberal Neos party.
In the run-up to the Austrian general election in August last year, Luschnik’s NGO had published a video online that juxtaposed Kickl with historic images of Hitler, the Nazi party, and the Second World War.
A voiceover asked: “Do you really want another People’s Chancellor?” – alluding to a moniker Kickl chose for his election campaign. The term was also briefly used by Nazi propaganda in reference to Hitler in 1933 before it was largely replaced by the term Führer (leader) in 1934.
The FPÖ sued Plattform Österreich for defamation. In 2024, the Vienna Commercial Court sided with the right-wingers, saying the video associated Kickl with Hitler, National Socialism and war, and that the term People’s Chancellor alone was not enough to justify this. The court sentenced the NGO to pay damages and refrain from disseminating the video.
Luschnik’s platform appealed the verdict but the Vienna Higher Regional Court confirmed it. The NGO appealed once more to the Supreme Court. The latest dismissal by Austria’s highest court means the verdict is binding.
Plattform Österreich will now have to pay €4,000 in damages to Kickl and pay for ads in Austrian media to make the verdict publicly known.
FPÖ Secretary-General Christian Hafenecker said the party was satisfied with the verdict and called the video “scandalous”.
He said it his party found it worrying that Luschnik as the originator of the video could work in a leading role for the Neos party in parliament.
Luschnik and the Neos party declined to comment on the verdict.
