The far-right Free Party FPÖ in Austria is seeking to take political advantage of the postponement of its concerts due to a threatened terrorist attack.

It may sound strange, but there were American fans of the singer Taylor Swift who chose to pay a few thousand dollars to enjoy her concert in Europe, specifically in Vienna.

For three consecutive nights, the 65,000 tickets available each time were sold out, bringing tens of thousands of visitors to the Austrian capital, who were eventually left with bitterness after reports of a terrorist attack led the country’s authorities to decide to cancel the concerts.

Vienna is concerned about its image

The Vienna municipality’s attempt to gild the pill for “swifties” with small impromptu music events, souvenirs and free museum entry was little consolation, but it seems at least to have shown a welcoming city, now concerned about public image of itself, but also of the entire country abroad. Something that, however, does not seem to particularly concern the far-right party of the Free (FPÖ), which considers this incident to be a golden opportunity to further expand the lead given to it by opinion polls, in view of the national elections next September.

The head of the FPÖ, Herbert Kickl, a well-known political profiteer, found an excuse to intensify his anti-Islamic propaganda and blame the government for its already “tight” immigration policy. It deliberately fails to mention that the two arrested and alleged perpetrators, aged 19 and 17, were born and raised in Austria. Their origin is from the Balkans and the fact that they were converted so “easily” by fanatical Islamists is, above all, a certification of the failure of the political inclusion and integration of minorities even for second and third generation children. Which of course is not in the priorities of Herbert Kickle, who is a fan of “Remigration”. He goes on to talk of an Islamist invasion of a country of “open vine”.

The disbandment of the intelligence services

What the far-right politician mostly fails to mention, however, is his own responsibilities as a former interior minister when his party co-governed with the centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP) during Sebastian Kurz’s chancellorship. In particular, in 2018, the FPÖ and Kikl personally tried to bring the country’s intelligence services under their control, proceeding with thick interventions, almost leading to their dissolution and mainly to their discredit and isolation from “sister” services of great powers, which they interrupted or greatly curtailed cooperation with them.

It is characteristic that the current planned attacks were thwarted by information from the American intelligence services, which preferred to alert the intelligence services of the Austrian army first.

The discrediting of the intelligence services during Kickl’s tenure has now become a key weapon in the quiver of chancellor and ÖVP leader Karl Nehammer, who sees an opportunity to bounce back by attacking Kickl and his ministerial works. Nehammer notes that things would probably be much worse if the country’s intelligence services continued to be under Kickle’s control.

The Secret Service wants more

At the same time, however, a discussion has started on Nehamer’s initiative to expand the capabilities of the secret services. Restrictions resulting from respect for privacy, personal data and confidentiality of communications have been targeted. The current legal and constitutional framework protects the citizen from the action of secret services and its critics consider that it does not meet the needs of the time and should be revised. This is of course a standing request of the relevant government officials.

The debates on this issue, but also the controversies in relation to immigration and the integration of immigrants will monopolize, as everything shows the pre-election confrontation. After all, Taylor Swift can unwittingly judge the outcome of the elections of a medium-sized European country, without even having to perform a single one of her hits.