A new political party established by Austria's Turkish community aims to contest in the elections in 2019 and combat the growth of far-right ideology in the country, reports said on Monday.
The center-right New Movement for the Future (Neue Bewegung für die Zukunft - NBZ), was established in December with Adnan Dinçer as party chairman. It aims to combat the growth of the far-right in Austria, where more than 350,000 people of Turkish origin live, and represent migrants from around the world.
"We want to stand in the elections with a professional team," Dinçer told Anadolu Agency. "We do not have to run for the 2018 legislative election, we can be prepared well and take part in the local elections that will be held in 2019 or 2020" he said.
Dinçer highlighted that the Turkish community has been living in Austria for the past four to five decades and do not plan to return to Turkey.
"We will live here and therefore we need to be a part of the political formation here" Dinçer said, noting that the rise of far-right parties in Europe pushed them to mobilize immediately.
Touching upon the fact that major political parties in Austria do not properly represent minorities in the country, Dinçer said that communities must establish political formations to guarantee minority rights in the future. Moreover, he continued by saying that the party will not only cater to the Turkish minority, but will also embrace all minorities in the country and try to represent them by addressing their needs.
While some Turks living in Austria have said they would never support far-right parties, others say they would not vote for the Greens, who they say support "terrorists and coup-plotters" -- a reference to the PKK and the July 15 coup attempt.
Austrian authorities pressed charges in about 1,690 cases related to right-wing extremism in 2015, the highest number to date in a single year and up from 1,200 in 2014, a report by Austria's domestic intelligence service BVT showed.
The number of far-right "extremist acts" reported in 2015, ranged from hurling fireworks at migrant shelters to inciting violence on the internet, totaled 1,150 cases, up from 750 in 2014, the report also showed.
Recently, the head of Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPO) called for a law banning "fascistic Islam" and Muslim symbols, comparable to an existing law banning Nazi symbols, saying Islam could wipe out European society. Austria needs "a law which prohibits fascistic Islam," said Heinz Christian Strache, in the presence of thousand supporters, at a party meeting in Salzburg.