Moelzer no longer FPOe top candidate for Europe

FPOe politician Andreas Moelzer is no longer his party’s top candidate for the European Parliament elections. The news comes after his controversial remarks about race in the European Union led to senior Austrian politicians calling for him to withdraw.

Moelzer decided to step down from the top candidacy position for the elections in May, citing “evident loss of confidence in my party” as the reason for his withdrawal. The politician who is currently an MEP has not withdrawn from the general FPOe candidate list.

The move from Moelzer follows comments from President Heinz Fischer who said the views of Moelzer that EU was becoming a “conglomerate of negroes” and that its regulations made Hitler’s Third Reich looked “possibly…liberal”, were “out of place in the European Parliament”.

FPOe party leader Heinz-Christian Strache has also distanced himself from Moezler’s remarks by saying “Andreas Moelzer is not the party’s chief ideologue”.

Strache said he was planning to speak personally to Moezler this week about the controversial remarks. Criticisms have come from other populist parties that have been building alliances with the FPOe, as well as from a leader of Austria’s Jewish community.

The MEP politician insisted to media that he did not decide to withdraw because of pressure from the “far-left” or the “hypocritical political establishment” or “politically correct media” many of whom have criticised his recent remarks.