Islam was mentioned a total of 21 times in the Austrian coalition’s new governmental programme, titled “Together. For our Austria”.
In terms of domestic security, the programme focused on “political Islam” and “Islamist extremism”.
Yet, despite a dramatic increase in the number of right-wing attacks in recent years in Austria, there was no mention of right-wing activity or fascism in the document published in late December by chancellor-elect Sebastian Kurz‘s centre-right People’s Party (OVP) and the far-right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPO).
According to Austria’s domestic intelligence service (BVT), authorities pressed charges in about 1,690 cases related to right-wing activity in 2015 - the highest number in a single year and an increase from 1,200 in 2014.