Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), after winning the European elections, asked the government on Tuesday (June 11th) to appoint a Commissioner for the repatriation of migrants and refugees to the new House of Commissioners, even if in the meantime have been granted citizenship.

The FPÖ supports the far-right concept of repatriation, which calls for the deportation of people of non-European national origin who they say have failed to integrate.

While it is up to the conservative government to appoint any commissioner, the FPÖ said its first national victory at the ballot box gives it the right to nominate someone for the role and dictate its portfolio.

In the EU elections, the FPÖ received 25.4% of the vote, just ahead of the ruling conservative People’s Party (ÖVP) with 24.5%.

“What I have noticed in the last few weeks during the election campaign is that there is above all a need for a reasonable immigration policy, that there is a need for a revision of the immigration policy,” FPÖ secretary general Christian Hafenecker said at a press conference.

“We need a repatriation commissioner,” he added, suggesting an FPÖ official to fill the role.

It is not the first time that the FPÖ supports this idea.

In 2023, party leader Herbert Kickl said those who “refuse to integrate” should lose their citizenship and be deported.

The concept of repatriation is associated with white nationalists who defend the grand replacement conspiracy theory.

The theory holds that there is a conspiracy to replace the so-called native white population of Europe with non-white immigrants.

The UN rights chief warned in March that the conspiracy theories being spread are “delusional” and racist and directly incite violence.

The FPÖ is expected to take first place in September’s national election, but may need to find willing coalition partners to govern.

The party – founded in the 1950s by a former Nazi – has been part of a governing coalition several times, but has never governed the country of nine million people.