Following a number of anti-Islamic comments in online forums, a politician for the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) in the Bludenz district of west-Austrian state of Vorarlberg has been removed from the local electoral list. Karl Mayrhofer had written that Islam was a “degenerate and depraved ideology,” which cost him both his party membership as well as his candidacy in the upcoming local elections.
Joachim Weixlbaumer, leader of the FPÖ municipal faction, stressed that he had made clear from the very beginning that the above mentioned comments were unacceptable, and they had received no support from the rest of the local faction either. Though the removal of Mayrhofer from the list was the logical conclusion, Weixlbaumer pointed out that this incident changes nothing with regard to the massive problems in Bludenz that exist concerning the parallel society of the local Turkish-origin population.
