Austrian politician makes bizarre anti-groping video for refugees
Austrian politician makes bizarre anti-groping video for refugees
A right-wing Austrian politician has sparked online ridicule after releasing a strange anti-groping instructional video for refugees and migrants.
2 min read
08 Jun, 2016
Sippel demonstrates an illegal hold [YouTube screenshot]
"Keep your fingers off our women" was the message an Austrian politician sent to refugees in Europe this week, albeit in a bizarre instructional video showing him groping a blonde mannequin.
The video was posted by Armin Sippel, a member of Austria's far-right Freedom Party, to offer tips to asylum seekers on how they should conduct themselves while in Austria.
Targeted at an Arabic speaking audience, as is apparent from the misspelled Arabic word for 'no' used in the video, Sippel warns indiscreet foreigners not to make advances on an Austrian fraulein (unmarried woman) and grab her breasts or bottom - acts that he kindly demonstrates on the unsuspecting dummy.
With the aid of a picture of an aeroplane, the hardliner then explains that if these rules are broken, migrants and refugees will be sent back to their countries.
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| The video misspells the Arabic word for 'no' by placing the letters in the wrong order [YouTube screenshot] |
While the video makes for bizzare watching for most audiences, the sentiment it conveys taps into the anti-migrant hysteria that has been fuelled by a number of cases of sexual assault in Europe that have been linked to the new arrivals.
The Freedom Party has played on fears of the newcomers, and has done so quite successfully.
In May, the far-right party narrowly lost out to Green candidate Alexander Van der Bellen in Austria's presidential elections.
Van der Bellen defeated Norbert Hofer by a wafer-thin margin of 0.6 percent - leading the latter's Freedom Party to launch an official challenge of the result on Wednesday.
The controversial video released by Sippel, however, did not enjoy the same popularity, and the response was an outpouring of disgust and mockery on social media.
Following the criticism, the politician removed the video from his Facebook page and said that "as a result of the extremely aggressive personal attacks, I decided to take it offline."
The video later re-emerged when others posted it on YouTube.
Sippel added, however, that he has no regrets for making the video, which he views as a necessary step in addressing the sexual assaults that occurred in Cologne and the "daily individual cases" in his home country of Austria.
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