Austria’s far right has signed an alliance with President Putin’s United Russia party and has offered to act as a go-between for Donald Trump and the Kremlin.
Heinz-Christian Strache, the leader of Austria’s Freedom Party (FPO) travelled to Moscow on Monday to sign a co-operation agreement with Sergei Zheleznyak, United Russia’s deputy leader who is the subject of travel bans and asset freezes imposed by EU sanctions.
The FPO is leading Austrian opinion polls ahead of national elections, which could be as early as May 2017, after winning its biggest ever share of the vote in the country’s presidential election earlier this month. The FPO has denied allegations that it receives funding from Moscow.
On a visit to the United States last month, Mr Strache met Michael T Flynn, appointed by Donald Trump as national security adviser, in New York. Mr Strache has suggested that a meeting between Mr Putin and Mr Trump could be hosted in Vienna, with Austria acting as a “peace mediator” between the US and Russia.
Yesterday, the party said in a statement: “The FPO is further gaining influence internationally. It is particularly important to Strache that the US and Russia stand shoulder to shoulder. The FPO acts as a neutral and reliable intermediary and partner in promoting peace.”
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Mr Zheleznyak said: “We must help to expand the partnership between our parties and countries, including [co-operating on] issues of international security, migration crisis, economic and humanitarian development, supporting traditional values and protecting the environment.”
The five-year agreement between the FPO and United Russia includes mutual non-interference, the promotion of dialogue and economic development as well as “raising of younger generations in the spirit of patriotism and work enjoyment”.
The deal is controversial even in Austria, a neutral country that has never joined Nato and which has resisted endorsing EU sanctions against Russia as punishment for President Putin’s annexation of Crimea and aggression in Ukraine.
The ruling Austrian Social Democrats, a centre-left party, described the pact as making “a mockery of modern Austria” and suggested “the Moscow cold must have got to their heads”.
Mr Strache said he was “amused and amazed” at criticism of his Moscow trip and called for EU sanctions against Russia to be lifted. “Austria needs international political and business contacts rather than useless and damaging sanctions,” he said.
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The agreement is the first of its kind between United Russia and a European political party as Mr Putin strengthens his links with increasingly successful populist and far-right parties in EU countries, including France and the Netherlands. While the French National Front, which has also led polls for the presidential election early next year, has no explicit alliance with the United Russia party, a bank with links to the Kremlin has extended loans to Marine Le Pen’s party.
