Xenophobia in Graz election campaign

Policy Response DateJuly 1, 2008 Country: Austria Address: Graz General Type: Racist discourse Racism and discrimination phenomena: Anti-migrant/xenophobia
Groups affected / Interested in: Migrants, Refugees, Roma & Travelers, Muslims, Ethnic minorities, Religious minorities, Asylum seekers Key socio-economic/institutional areas: Political discourse -parties - orgs Hate speech/Racist Discourse Medium: Political Discourse

The City of Graz has tasked the Human Rights Advisory Board of the City of Graz with a human rights monitoring of the election campaign. The monitoring uses linguistic, social-science and legal methods and gives a summary assessment of election campaign materials and statements under the motto “No election campaign at the expense of human beings”.

The monitoring of the 2008 Municipal elections campaign in the City of Graz has shown that questions of ethnic origin, in particular regarding integration, dominated the first phase of the election campaign in between June and October 2007. The majority of such statements came from the Freedom Party, the Austrian People’s Party and the Future Alliance Austria.

The Future Alliance Austria is running a campaign that centres around a “cleansing” metaphor, with a number of slogans calling for “cleansing” in relation to alleged social problems attributed to “foreigners”.
 

Source: http://wahlkampfbarometer-graz.at/cms/ (2011-10-04),
http://derstandard.at/1282978601717/Game-Moschee-Baba-FPOe-Werbung-laesst-Muezzins-abschiessen (2011-10-04)