Vienna Takes Over Investigation: Charges Under NS Reactivation Law After Attack on Taxi Driver in Leoben

The incident began when three fraternity members got into the man's taxi and are said to have uttered Nazi slogans in the vehicle, including a "Heil Hitler" shout. The taxi driver then refused to drive the three men and called the emergency number. According to the investigation findings so far, this refusal led to the assault.

The fraternity members are then said to have attacked the cabbie, with one of them choking him and bringing him to the ground, where he was kicked multiple times. The trio allegedly beat, kicked, and choked the 57-year-old. When the taxi driver placed the emergency call and alerted the police, the fraternity members tried to flee, which the cabbie wanted to prevent in order to enable the police on their way to identify the men.

Suspects and Connections

At the time of the incident, hundreds of fraternity members from Germany and Austria were attending the celebration of the Burschenschaft Leder. According to APA information, among the accused are two leading members of the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement Austria (IBÖ). They are the German citizens Yannick W. and Uwe S., with Yannick W. being described by investigators as the figurehead and face of the Viennese Identitarian scene and regarded as a known figure of the right-wing extremist scene.

Another man involved was employed as a parliamentary staffer for an FPÖ member of parliament until the incidents became known. He is Gernot S., who was employed until the beginning of June as a parliamentary staffer for FPÖ MP Michael Oberlechner. According to reports, G.S. is said to have co-organized boxing matches in an Identitarian cellar in Vienna's fifth district and, according to STANDARD research, was primarily responsible for parliamentary inquiries submitted by Oberlechner, of which just over 15 had been submitted since his hiring, all on housing construction and building policy.

The FPÖ stated that the employment relationship had been terminated immediately after the allegations became known. Accordingly, G.S. was dismissed a few days after the Leoben incident, when rumors about it reached the FPÖ parliamentary group leadership. In a parliamentary group meeting before the National Council session on Monday, FPÖ party leader Herbert Kickl and Secretary General Michael Schnedlitz are said to have reprimanded MP Oberlechner over his choice of staff member, according to participant accounts.

Oberlechner rejected rumors that G.S. had been hired on the recommendation of higher-ranking FPÖ politicians at the federal level. "Ansonsten war in die Anstellung niemand eingebunden", said Oberlechner. The hiring had gone back to a direct application to him.

Official Investigations

The Interior Ministry is currently examining a possible expulsion of the two German citizens. Since the two Identitarians are German citizens, the Interior Ministry is currently examining a possible expulsion. The legal basis for any expulsion is formed by § 67 of the Aliens' Police Act, whereby the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA) must examine whether "acts endangering the state" emanate from the two suspects.

Regarding the status of the proceedings, the ministry stated that the examination of the "significant endangerment of public order and security" would take several weeks. The Directorate for State Protection and Intelligence Service (DSN) is also involved in the investigations, as is the Vienna State Office for State Protection and Extremism Prevention (LSE), which is additionally investigating Gernot S. on suspicion of incitement. The DSN had already reported Gernot S. in June 2025 under the Prohibition Act because he was said to have been present at a memorial service for a fraternity member at which an SS song was allegedly sung; this proceeding has since been discontinued.

The case was debated in the National Council on Monday afternoon after it became known that one of the accused had been employed in parliament until recently. SPÖ federal managing director Klaus Seltenheim had already over the weekend called on Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) to examine "without delay" all legal prerequisites for an expulsion. Seltenheim stated that no state could be made with the FPÖ, Kickl and Co. were a danger to democracy and security in Austria. Kickl had been downplaying the right-wing extremist Identitarians for years and rolling out the blue carpet for them. The fact that Herbert Kickl was still silent about this assault was no longer acceptable, the SPÖ federal managing director further criticized.

Political Reactions

Seltenheim called on Kickl to sever all connections to the right-wing extremist Identitarians immediately. He described the Interior Ministry's approach as an important step in the fight against violence and right-wing extremism. It was good that the Interior Ministry was reacting quickly and exhausting all legal options for expulsion; violence and right-wing extremism had no place in Austria, Seltenheim continued, identifying a lack of demarcation that ran "like a brown thread through the history of the FPÖ."

ÖVP parliamentary group leader Ernst Gödl meanwhile announced that at the next presidential meeting with the other parliamentary group leaders he wanted to aggressively discuss the possibility of security clearance checks for parliamentary staff by the domestic intelligence service. Gödl said on Tuesday evening on the ORF program "Report": "Wehret den Anfängen, Staatsverweigerer haben im Staatsdienst und schon gar nicht im Parlament einen Platz". The ÖVP is thereby now supporting security clearance checks for parliamentary staff, after the topic had already been debated in the presidium at the beginning of June without any faction having spoken out in favor at that time.

According to STANDARD and ORF-"Report" reports from the end of April, between ten and twenty FPÖ parliamentary staff (Pamies) are under observation by the domestic intelligence authorities. State Secretary Jörg Leichtfried (SPÖ) had considered it sensible to screen at least staff members who work on security-relevant committees.

Debate on Security Clearance Checks

The four other parliamentary parties sharply criticized the Blues. NEOS faction leader Yannick Shetty spoke of a radicalization of the FPÖ under Kickl. Green MP Lukas Hammer criticized that suspects in right-wing extremist acts repeatedly came from the Identitarian milieu and accused the FPÖ of failing to distance itself from the Identitarians, adopting their content, and giving them access to parliament – he called them a "right-wing radical thug gang". ÖVP MP Wolfgang Gerstl accused the FPÖ of using the Identitarians and undermining trust in state institutions in order to damage democracy.

FPÖ Secretary General Christian Hafenecker rejected the accusations and described the debate as a "distorted political trick". Violence could not be justified by anything and belonged before a court. National Council President Walter Rosenkranz had over the weekend defended in an interview with the newspaper "Kurier" the employment of members of the Identitarian Movement in parliament. "Ich verurteile keine Person für irgendetwas, das in der Zeit vorher passiert ist", said Rosenkranz and added, "Risiko gibt es überall, das beginnt schon im Straßenverkehr".

FPÖ's Defense and Counterattack

In the debate, the FPÖ pointed out that FPÖ Steiermark in 2016, after an Identitarian action in which they had poured fake blood on the Graz party headquarters of the Greens, had passed as a state group a resolution that activists of other political groupings may not hold functions in the FPÖ. This rule had been adopted under the then Styrian FPÖ chief and today's Governor Mario Kunasek, who had moreover, as Defense Minister in 2019, loosened the practice in the Austrian Armed Forces whereby mere membership in or support of the Identitarians no longer automatically led to security flags. After public and coalition-internal pressure from the ÖVP, Kunasek had reversed this loosening.

The FPÖ countered in turn with a photo showing Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen next to the right-wing extremist Martin Sellner, and pointed out that Van der Bellen had merely been approached during a walk, whereas Wagemann had posed with parliamentary group leader Kickl on the occasion of the FPÖ election party. Journalists had had to leave the election party after a certain time, according to the FPÖ.

Within the FPÖ, the case was also highly controversial internally. Observers point to a well-known photo showing FPÖ chief Herbert Kickl with Identitarian spokesman Yannick Wagemann, who is regarded as one of the suspects in the Leoben proceedings. Identitarians in Austria had in 2016 poured fake blood on the Graz Green party headquarters, which at the time triggered the official distancing of FPÖ Steiermark from other