SPÖ leader Andreas Popler voiced his warnings about the FPÖ. Blue Party leader Herbert Giggle wasn’t too happy about that.

“Accusations are flying!” ORF anchor Susanne Schnabel interrupted. In fact – SPÖ leader Andreas Pöbler said the FPÖ was a “threat to democracy” during his televised spat with Blue Party leader Herbert Kickle on Friday. “Mr. Poplar, the anti-democrat you are supposed to be fighting here!”

Schnabel’s attempt to show solidarity between the two sides in view of the flood disaster in Austria failed. He probably had to too. Popler can rally his left-wing party base with warnings about the FPÖ, which he has been counting on for weeks. And Giggle isn’t exactly known for its uncompromising approach to competition.

In the ORF TV fight, Popler presented a long list – “She’s over 1.80 meters tall” – of FPÖ politicians before Kickl. The list believes the FPÖ is “worthless in a democratic constitutional state”: “The FPÖ is a serial offender,” said Popler. Kickl later referred to the investigation into the publicity affair conducted against SPÖ President Werner Faymann and SPÖ Minister Josef Ostermayer.

A vague giggle about climate

Poplar’s attack, Kiklin’s counterattack: that’s how the fight goes. With the coalition between the FPÖ and the SPÖ now ruled out, party leaders do not have to emphasize their unity too much. Giggling Poplar’s attacks, which increased as the fight progressed, didn’t seem so wrong. Schnabel led him early on with questions about floods, regeneration and climate change in the FPÖ’s weak topic area. So when Giggle talked about climate being “dynamic” and not “static” it was a bit vague.

However, attention to the climate issue was quickly lost in the fray. “What I say now is important,” Schnabel said, not allowing himself to be interrupted when he warned that the FPÖ was a threat to democracy and that the Blue Party would rule with emergency laws. “We have to be vigilant,” Popler said.

“I don’t know what Mr. Popler has to do with democracy,” Giggle asked himself. Maybe it was “years of Leninist-Marxist teaching” or something Popler couldn’t afford to lose. After all, he lost an SPÖ membership survey to Burgenland’s governor Hans-Peter Toskosil, and was promoted to office by SPÖ officials: “You equate yourself with democracy,” complained Gicl.

In short: Popler wanted to convey his warnings about the FPÖ – and did so. Maybe Giggle isn’t too happy about it.