The 42-year-old Jan Böhmermann is being harshly criticized for calling for the killing of politicians from Austria’s FPÖ and Germany’s AfD parties during his “ZDF Magazin Royale” on Friday evening.
The comedian, who is paid €682,000 per year from the mandatory fee all Germans have to pay to support public television, is outraged that the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) is soaring in the polls, and is currently the most popular party in the country in the run-up to new elections in the fall. Böhmermann equates the two parties, the AfD and the FPÖ with the National Socialists (NSDAP), and then concluded his show, which he spent attacking the two parties, by saying: “Don’t always bring out the Nazi club, but maybe just club a few Nazis. Bye, see you next week.”
His phrase is a play on the verb “keulen” in German, with “Nazi-Keule” referring to the Nazi dictatorship, while “keulen” is a verb that refers to culling animals, which the German dictionary defines as the act to kill farm animals “to prevent or contain animal epidemics.”
In effect, Böhmermann compares the AfD and FPÖ politicians with sick animals that need to be killed in order to avoid or prevent an epidemic.
FPÖ leader Kickl wrote on his Facebook channel: “For your information: culling is a verb from veterinary medicine and is defined by the dictionary as follows: ‘To kill livestock in order to prevent or contain animal diseases’.” Kickl described it as “disgusting” and “absolute madness” that had nothing to do with satire.
Just last week, an AfD politician withdrew from his election race due to serious threats to him and his family, while numerous AfD supporters have been brutally assaulted, targeted at their homes, and had their vehicles set on fire.
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Before his call to “cull” the two parties, Böhmermann spent 34 minutes drawing comparisons between the AfD, the FPÖ and Adolf Hitler, saying: “The FPÖ, that is the Austrian AfD.”
He also mocked Christian Democrat Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz, who Böhmermann says is not taking the AfD seriously enough.
“You can’t just bring out the ‘Nazi-club’ if you want to talk about Nazis.” Then, he takes on a serious demeanor, saying: “When Nazis come to power, they become more powerful. Who would have thought.”
He also attacks the leader of the FPÖ, Herbert Kickl, saying: “Just because someone speaks like Goebbels doesn’t mean he is Hitler… Adolf Hitler and Herbert Kickl have nothing to do with each other, I have to make that very clear here. Hitler had a completely different beard.” He then mocks Kickl’s decision to refer to himself as the “people’s chancellor,” saying Hitler wanted people to call him the “people’s chancellor until he wanted every to him the Führer.”
At the end of the program, Böhmermann parodied the FPÖ party song (“Always again Austria”) in a music video and accused the FPÖ politicians of killing people for their country: “I beat someone dead for red-white-red – I am a real patriot.”
FPÖ Secretary General Christian Hafenecker also sharply criticized Böhmermann’s statements, which he said went “beyond all previous dimensions” and should not remain without consequences. Calls for physical violence against opposition politicians “were previously only known from terrorist regimes,” Hafenecker added.
He called for the self-proclaimed satirist to be monitored by the intelligence services. “Where is the outcry from Federal President Van der Bellen? Where are the condemning statements from the ÖVP, Greens, SPÖ, and NEOS, who always accuse the FPÖ of hatred and incitement? Where is the Office for the Protection of the Constitution?”
