Die Wahlkämpfer

An enquiry about the cadre and electorate of the Austrian Freedom Party FPÖ (far right), based on interviews with its leader Jörg Haider, the young party officials closest to him, and with militants and supporters. These interviews were filmed during the election campaign in Carinthia in 1992. “When Jörg Haider and his collaborators travel around the country, they are always ready to exploit feelings of dissatisfaction and fear in order to win votes. They come across as dynamic people who are used to carrying off victories. Their slogans carry punch because they are simple. They claim, for example, that foreigners are “social parasites”, responsible for crime and unemployment. The film does not adopt the usual tactic of trying to attribute the FPÖ’s success to the demoniac nature of the secretary-general’s charisma, but lets the people around him express their own opinions on the subject. The reasons which they give are very different. Viewers are allowed to draw their own conclusions.” (Helmut Grasser).