Austria to ban Turkish election campaign events

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said his government would act to prevent any possible campaigning on Austrian soil by parties in Turkey's upcoming snap elections
Friday, 20 April 2018 15:23

Austria's far-right coalition government, will not allow Turkish election campaign events, including speeches by Turkish politicians, to be held within its borders, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Friday.

The chancellor recalled that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had been trying to use the Turkish diaspora in Europe for political purposes for years.

"As chancellor, I want to put an end to this. Speeches by Turkish politicians that are part of the election campaign are unwanted in Austria and we will not allow them anymore," Kurz told the Oe1 radio broadcaster.

Earlier this week Erdoğan called snap elections for June 24, bringing the polls forward by a year-and-a-half.

Kurz said any campaign events could be banned using changes to the law on public gatherings passed last year.

These gave the authorities the power to ban assemblies which "serve the political activity of third-party nationals" or which harm Austria's interests.

Any rallies planned by the opposition would also be banned, he said, in order to avoid what he called Turkey's "inflamed atmosphere being brought into Austria, because it's bad for our coexistence in this country".

Several hundred thousand people in Austria are Turkish or of Turkish origin.

Austria was one of the EU countries which refused to host rallies before the 2017 Turkish constitutional referendum, which established the new system of government. In March 2017, then Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern called on the European Union to ban Turkish political campaigns across the bloc.