In late September, four elderly men from Vienna, Austria, appeared in Kabul, Afghanistan, to visit the Taliban. The astonished public became aware of the surprising trip through photos of the meeting shared by the Afghan groups‘ X (formerly Twitter) account. Among the visitors was Andreas Molzer, chief ideologue of the Austrian far-right Freedom Party, former member of the European Parliament, and the chief editor of the influential right-wing weekly Zur Zeit (Current Times).

Who is the FPO?

The photos left observers wondering what the FPO did in Kabul. Not just because the Taliban is shunned by almost every Western government, the far-right Freedom Party, or FPO, is an openly anti-Muslim, racist, and anti-migration party. It considers itself a defender of an imagined "Christian Europe" from Islamic influence, and more generally, "oriental influence", as the party describes it. In past elections, the FPO rallied voters around slogans like "Occident not Orient", "Home not Islam", or "Vienna must not become Istanbul".

Combined with patriotic, crude social, and nostalgic rhetoric that promises a return to more affluential decades of an imagined happier past, the party tops the polls with over eight percent points ahead of the struggling social democratic SPO and the conservative People’s Party, OVP.

The FPO originates from the successors’ party of the National Socialist NSDAP. After World War II, the Association of the Independents (VDU) emerged as an organizational melting pot for middle and lower-ranked Nazis. In 1956, the VDU transformed into today’s FPO.

The FPO is an influential force in Austrian and European politics, participating in several federal and regional governments as a junior partner since 1999. However, the recent trip to Afghanistan overstretched its foreign policy influence and led to criticism even from within the party.

The official reason for the trip

Spearheaded by Molzer, the four-man-strong delegation flew to Kabul via Istanbul for a five-day mission. Molzer and his three companions, the Egyptian doctor Dr. Mustafa Eltelby, ex-FPO Federal Councillor Johannes Hubner, and the jewelry dealer Ronald Schwarzer, met with Taliban‘s foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and department administrators. Austria does not recognize the new government in Afghanistan and has no formal foreign relations.

According to the Austrian Statistics Office, in 2022, around 24,200 asylum applications in Austria came from refugees from Afghanistan. This number made Afghanistan the most common country of origin for asylum seekers, followed by India with around 19,500 and Syria with around 19,200 applications. A total of around 112,000 asylum applications were made in Austria in 2022. In other words, about every fifth asylum application was made by Afghans.

Upon his return from Kabul, Molzer gave an interview to the Sunday edition of the newspaper Krone. He claimed he had visited the Afghan foreign minister to discuss a return agreement for unsuccessful applicants. Currently, Austria classifies Afghanistan as an "unsafe third country". Hence, deportations from Austria to the country are legally challenging. The FPO claims that 40,000 Afghans are waiting to be deported – a populist outcry with no data-based foundation. However, data is less critical than the sentiments of their voters.

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Molzer had probably hoped to play with these sentiments to justify his trip. He also claimed to have conducted a "fact-finding mission" in Afghanistan, traveling "over 500 kilometers, crossing the Hindukush twice". However, he had no official mandate for negotiations from the Austrian government, so any agreements reached between him and the Taliban would be null and void. Molzer is an experienced academic and politician, considered the most influential thinker of Austria’s right wing. Although smiling away his trip with a smug comment, "I conduct private trips to various parts of the world for my whole life," the real reason for the trip to Kabul is to be found elsewhere.

And the unofficial reason

Molzer and the FPO delegation negotiated about releasing an Austrian imprisoned in Kabul, which Molzer has confirmed, but so far without success. A person arrested by the Afghan secret service in June on suspicion of espionage was the right-wing extremist author Dr. Herbert Fritz, 84. He has diabetes and urgently needs medication, said Molzer to Krone.

Fritz‘s family approached Dr. Eltelby, the former President of the Austrian-Egyptian Society, a well-known financial supporter of the FPO, and a candidate for the party in the 2002 elections, requesting to stand up for Fritz. Since the late 1990s, Dr. Eltelby has used his personal contacts and business links to establish contacts for the FPO in North Africa and the Middle East.

The imprisoned Austrian citizen Herbert Fritz is a well-known right-wing extremist. He co-founded the National Democratic Party (NDP), which later, in the 1980s, dissolved due to Neofascist ideology, and marched with the far-right Identitarians in Vienna in 2021. Fritz traveled to Afghanistan for a "vacation trip" earlier this year. He aimed to prove that "Afghanistan is safe, and people can be deported to the country". Early into his trip, he authored an article called “Vacation greetings from Afghanistan” in the right-wing monthly Info Direct. He proclaimed that the country ruled by the Taliban is "absolutely safe." That was a grave misjudgment – even for him. In June, the Taliban arrested him on suspicion of espionage. Since then, the elderly Austrian Neo-Nazi has been imprisoned in Kabul.

"I do not know Dr. Fritz personally, but of course, I have known him for many years because of his magazine Der Volkerfreund (People’s Friend)," said Molzer to the weekly Falter. The FPO delegation explained to the Taliban that there are no good headlines for them when an 84th-year-old Austrian dies in their prisons, Molzer explained.

"They were also quite insightful, but unfortunately, our efforts failed because the Taliban do not yet have proper structures," informed Molzer: "The secret service detains him, and there is still no functioning communication between the authorities."

The long-time FPO politician Molzer is outraged that the Austrian Foreign Department is not helping the old man: "Even a right-wing extremist has a right to support from the Foreign Ministry. After all, he is 84 years old and sick." Asked if he would have done the same for a leftwing activist imprisoned by the Taliban, he replied: "Yes." We will never know. However, Molzer’s efforts for Fritz were undoubtedly in vain.

The aftermaths

The delegation returned on September 29, landing at Vienna International Airport. One day earlier, FPO parliamentarian Axel Kassegger announced he would resign from the position of foreign policy spokesperson with immediate effect. He had initially planned to join Molzer and his entourage on their trip: "The planned trip to Afghanistan was a huge mistake on my part. I realize that my actions have also damaged the important function of foreign policy spokesperson, which is why I have informed the leadership of the Parliamentary Club that I am resigning from this function with immediate effect," said Kasseggger in an initial statement.

Even FPO leader Herbert Kickl described the trip to the Taliban as “incredible stupidity” in a press conference last Wednesday. He added: "I have no understanding of this. I do not know how anyone could develop such an idea; I do not have the imagination." However, it is unlikely that such a high-profile delegation traveled to meet the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan without the knowledge of Kickl and the FPO.

The Austria parliament also discussed the FPO trip following two parliamentary questions from the liberal Neos and the social democratic SPO. A request by two SPO parliamentarians to the Foreign Ministry intends to clarify "how deeply the FPO parliamentary club participated in the Afghanistan trip and how much the Foreign Ministry knew about the trip.”\"

The parliamentary question also asks whether intelligence services had conducted any investigations before the trip. The MPs also want to know whether and to what extent the intelligence services are aware of "private" connections between the Taliban and individual representatives of the FPO. The resignation of the FPO’s foreign policy spokesperson, Kassegger, does not change the fundamental problem, SPO’s Harald Troch told the TV station Puls 24.

Despite this frenzy from political opponents, the FPO-Taliban connection is unlikely to diminish support for the right-wing FPO among voters. Next year, there are national elections in Austria. In the most recent polls published by the Austrian Press Association (APA), the FPO leads with 32%, eight and eleven points ahead of the conservative OVP and the SPO, respectively. The liberal Neos and the Greens stand equally at nine percent.