The police tracked down the perpetrators of the smearings in Carinthia / Koroška

26.02.2021

A police officer from Klagenfurt / Celovec, who was on his way home after his work, noticed a car with an unusual number plate in Buchrunn / Bukovje and Eberndorf / Dobrla vas on 23 January. The decommissioned officer informed his colleagues at the police station in Eberndorf / Dobrla, whereupon investigations into this matter were initiated.

Entangled in contradictions

In the course of the surveys, a 20-year-old man from Klagenfurt / Celovec could be found out who repeatedly got involved in contradictions during his interrogation. After initially denying it, the 20-year-old finally stated that he and his 21-year-old friend, also from Klagenfurt / Celovec, had smeared the signs for Buchbrunn / Bukovje, Eberndorf / Doblra vas, Bleiburg / Pliberk and Tutzach / Tuce with a black spray paint.

As a motive, the 20-year-old stated that he had personal reasons for the smearings. The two men are reported to the public prosecutor in Klagenfurt / Celovec.

FPÖ members

FPÖ state party chairman Gernot Darmann said in a reaction that the behavior was simply unacceptable and intolerable. He therefore excluded both persons concerned from the party with immediate effect. One of the perpetrators has also been a candidate on the FPÖ list in Klagenfurt / Celovec for the upcoming local elections. 

SPÖ urges the confessing perpetrator to waive his mandate

The club chairman of the SPÖ in Klagenfurt / Celovec, Vice Mayor Jürgen Pfeiler, demanded in a broadcast a mandate waiver by the confessed local sign smearer who, according to media reports, is running for the municipal council election on the FPÖ list. The FPÖ party leader Wolfgang Germ had to take this into account. The city's reputation would be at stake.

Voglauer: "There is no justification"

"I am glad that this spook is finally over and that the two perpetrators have been investigated by the police," said the spokeswoman for the Greens, Member of the National Council, Olga Voglauer, relieved in a broadcast on Wednesday.

The confessed perpetrator stated that he acted for "personal reasons". Voglauer: “The personal motives are completely irrelevant here, because there is never any justification for hating ethnic groups. The smearing of place-name signs is not a permissible form of protest, but is and remains damage to property. "

The green national minority spokeswoman and state spokeswoman for Green Carinthia adds: "For reasons of general prevention, so that there are no imitators here, as well as because of the racist, political motivation underlying these condemnable acts, I expect severe penalties here."