An Austrian right-wing party founded by Nazis sent a delegation to Washington, D.C. this week for a series of political discussions.
“There is a series of invitations to talks with interesting political representatives of the United States on the sidelines of the US president’s inauguration on our packed schedule,” Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of the Freedom Party, said recently.
The Freedom Party was founded in 1956, and its first leader was a former SS officer. The nationalist, nativist party recently lost domestic elections, albeit by a narrow margin. Norbert Hofer, the party’s presidential candidate, made anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiments the core tenets of his campaign.
Strache recently called for “minus immigration” and compared Islam to Nazism. He claimed to have attended a meeting with President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser Michael Flynn at Trump Tower in December, though Trump’s team denied the meeting.
Strache’s itinerary is unclear. His delegation was pictured with Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) Thursday evening, though there is no indication whether or not they will be in attendance at the inauguration.
Austrian Freedom Party leadership MP's here to celebrate Trump inauguration. Hofer, Strache, Karlsboeck w/King, Blackburn, Bachmann, etc. pic.twitter.com/Hdb86Tzg4q
— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) January 19, 2017
One right-wing figure who will be at the inauguration, though, is Nigel Farage, former leader of the U.K. Independence Party and a key figure in pushing for Britain’s split from the European Union.
Farage was invited to attend the inauguration by Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R). Farage also threw an inauguration party Thursday night in honor of Trump’s ascent to power, the Guardian reported.
In Washington D.C. for the Trump inauguration. Great to be with @PhilBryantMS, @LordAshcroft and the Brexit Bad Boys! pic.twitter.com/YirdlT2aNJ
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) January 19, 2017
Other right wing figures in Europe, like France’s Marine Le Pen of the Front National (FN) and Frauke Petry of Alternative for German (AfD), will be attending a conference in the German city of Koblenz. Le Pen was seen in Trump Tower last week, though she claimed it wasn’t to meet Trump, despite her steadfast support for his campaign.
This post has been updated to include the tweet from Rep. Steve King.