A hotel cancels an event in Vienna organized by a fraternity close to the FPÖ. Apparently, an AfD politician was supposed to give a guest speech there.
According to reports from “Der Standard”, the Vienna Arcotel has cancelled a planned event by the FPÖ-affiliated fraternity “Aldania”. As the newspaper reported, AfD politician Matthias Helferich was supposed to be the keynote speaker at the planned celebration of the fraternity’s 130th anniversary. However, the hotel chain has now terminated the fraternity’s use of the venue.
The management of the Viennese hotel has now cancelled the event and “clearly and decisively distanced itself from right-wing extremism”, reports “Der Standard”.
According to “Der Standard”, the hotel announced on Instagram that the event had been cancelled after a thorough review of the “not entirely transparent” booking request. “Now and in the future, events suspected of being of a right-wing extremist nature will not be allowed in any of the eleven Arcotel hotels in Germany and Austria,” the statement continued.
According to reports from “heute.at”, members of the “Aldania” fraternity include the Vienna FPÖ leader Dominik Nepp, club chairman Maximilian Krauss, regional manager Andreas Guggenberger and former club leader Johann Gudenus. They now have to find a new venue for their celebration after the hotel canceled.
The decision to cancel was made after the “Group for Organized Antifascism” in Vienna called for protest messages to be sent to the hotel and protested against the planned event. To what extent the hotel’s cancellation is actually related to the protest messages is unclear, reports “Der Standard”.
The fraternity apparently planned to invite the AfD politician Helferich as a guest speaker in Vienna. Helferich has attracted attention in the past with right-wing extremist statements and is currently facing expulsion proceedings from the AfD party in Germany. Before the federal election in 2021, the WDR had published chats in which Helferlich had described himself as the “friendly face of the Nazis”. He had also made positive references to Adolf Hitler and described his bourgeois image as only an “illusion” in chats, reports “Der Standard”.
Helferich is currently a non-affiliated member of the Bundestag. As the “Spiegel” reports, the AfD in North Rhine-Westphalia is now planning to initiate exclusion proceedings against the controversial Dortmund member of the Bundestag. The state executive committee no longer wants to accept the “deviations” of the party member, the “Spiegel” quotes party circles as saying.
Three months ago, Helferich, who belongs to the officially dissolved right-wing extremist “wing” around Höcke, was elected as an assessor to the executive board at the NRW AfD state party conference in Marl. Helferich confirmed the procedure and the withdrawal of his party member rights on X.
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