Austria’s largest party calls for full headscarf ban in schools

GENEVA

Austria’s right-wing extremist Freedom Party (FPO), the largest faction in parliament, on Thursday called for a general ban on headscarves in all schools, saying the coalition government’s plan to restrict the ban to girls under 14 is insufficient.

In a press release, the opposition party also urged lawmakers to pass a “law banning political Islam” and demanded “an immediate stop to illegal mass immigration.”

“The headscarf is a symbol of political Islam, the oppression and paternalism of women, and therefore has no place in our schools,” the party said.

It added: “Firstly, the ‘new mass migration’ must be stopped immediately and, secondly, political Islam must be clearly prohibited by law.”

The FPO was responding to plans by the governing coalition — consisting of the Austrian People’s Party (OVP), the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO) and the liberal Neos party — to introduce a headscarf ban for girls under 14 starting in the 2026/2027 school year. According to the FPO, this measure “can only be a first step.”

The FPO became the strongest parliamentary faction with 28.8% of the vote in the most recent national elections and has repeatedly drawn criticism for well-documented Islamophobic and racist rhetoric.

A report by the Austrian NGO SOS Mitmensch cites a video shared by FPO leader Herbert Kickl portraying modern-day Austria as a nightmarish place, using darkened imagery to depict Muslims and Black people as threats.

SOS Mitmensch also highlighted remarks by FPO National Council members Dagmar Belakowitsch and Susanne Furst, who described Muslim schoolchildren as “disruptive” and framed them in terms consistent with right-wing extremist notions of “population exchange.”

In February 2025, a designated FPO municipal councilor in Hohenberg, in Lower Austria, posted a TikTok video in which he said, “You refugees already know where you belong: in the oven,” and added, “You Tschuschen, you and your families all belong in the chamber.”

“Tschuschen” is a derogatory Austrian German term for people of Southeast European or Middle Eastern origin. The reference to a “chamber” is widely understood as an allusion to Nazi gas chambers.

The video ended with the politician performing a Hitler salute.