Monthly Archives: February 2015

Are Dutch Authorities Prosecuting Geert Wilders on Behalf of Saudi Arabia and the OIC?

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Are Dutch Authorities Prosecuting Geert Wilders on Behalf of Saudi Arabia and the OIC?

by Fjordman

On December 18 2014, the Dutch authorities announced that they would prosecute Geert Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), for hate speech. They have tried this before, and failed. The recent case involves a chant during the spring of 2014 in which Wilders asked his supporters whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands. They shouted back “Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!” Because of this, the public prosecutor in The Hague will begin legal proceedings against Wilders “on charges of insulting a group of people based on race and incitement to discrimination and hatred,” prosecutors announced. “Politicians may go far in their statements, that’s part of freedom of expression, but this freedom is limited by the prohibition of discrimination,” a prosecution statement said. In other words: you have freedom of speech, unless you say something we dislike.

Wilders did not retract any of his comments. “In my fight for freedom and against the Islamization of the Netherlands, I will never let anyone silence me. No matter the cost, no matter by whom, whatever the consequences may be,” he said. As he commented: “I have said what millions of people think and find. For the second time, one apparently wants to deal with someone who speaks the truth. It is a travesty that I have to defend myself in court for this. The Public Prosecutor would do better to devote his time to prosecuting jihadis instead of me. The Party for Freedom is the largest party in the polls. Apparently the elite does not like that.”

“The decision to prosecute me is incomprehensible,” Wilders said in a statement. However, as the American political commentator Diana West noted, in our world today the decision is perfectly comprehensible. In our world, powerful global elites seek to destroy the indigenous cultures of Europe through “Multicultural” — read: “Marxist and anti-nationhood” — policies.

Geert Wilders previously published a book entitled Marked for Death: Islam’s War Against the West and Me. It is well researched and packed with insights. The foreword was written by the cultural critic Mark Steyn. Wilders here recalls the previous trial against him in the Netherlands, which was a farce from beginning to end. The case was eventually dropped. It turned into an international embarrassment for the Dutch legal system. However, the establishment have apparently decided that they wanted to make another attempt at shutting him up.

It is striking to notice that shortly before the latest Dutch prosecution against him, Saudi Arabia had been aggressively pushing Dutch authorities to do something to silence Geert Wilders.

In May 2014, the Dutch government sent an envoy to Riyadh for talks after the Saudis slapped indirect sanctions on The Netherlands because one Dutch politician had insulted Islam and Saudi Arabia. The Council of Saudi Chambers said that it had received an order from the Saudi government banning Dutch firms from taking part in future projects in the Kingdom, directly and through subcontracting. The order also reduced to a minimum the number of visas “for Dutch companies and investors who are not part of vital projects in the Kingdom.” There would also be a ban on trade delegations between the two countries. The Dutch government distanced itself from Wilders’ actions. Wilders had previously blamed Saudi Arabia for sponsoring terrorist attacks around the globe.

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The Manhunt in Copenhagen is Over

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Update 1:33pm EST: The dead perpetrator has been identified as Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein (article in Danish).

From a Danish contact:

He was raised in Denmark. There’s no indication that he’s been in Syria. He’s been convicted for violations of weapons laws.

I’m following the news right now. They seem to have the weapons. That includes one automatic rifle and two handguns. They have searched several other locations in Copenhagen.

The dénouement to yesterday’s terrorist attacks in Denmark must have occurred right after I went to be early this morning: police shot and killed a man near the train station, and they are certain that he is the gunmen who carried out the attacks.

Additional news: the Jewish man who was killed near the synagogue had volunteered to guard the premises while a bat mitzvah took place, due to the heightened security situation after the earlier attack at the café.

Below are excerpts from this morning’s report by The Washington Post:

Danish police kill Copenhagen shooting suspect

COPENHAGEN — Police in Copenhagen killed a gunman early Sunday they believe was responsible for a pair of deadly attacks just hours earlier, the first at a cafe hosting a forum on free speech and the second outside a synagogue where a bar mitzvah was underway.

The killings, with their eerie echo of last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris, had sent Denmark’s capital into lockdown and had prompted a massive manhunt that extended across the border into Sweden. In all, the attacks left two people dead and five police officers injured.

Jens Madsen, head of the Danish security agency PET, said in a news conference Sunday that the suspect had been known to intelligence agencies and that they were investigating whether he may have been “inspired by the events in Paris.”

At a news conference on Sunday morning, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said the country had been “hit by terror.”

“We do not know the motive for the alleged perpetrator’s actions, but we know that there are forces that want to hurt Denmark,” the prime minister said, adding that they wanted to stifle Denmark’s freedom of speech.

Local media identified the victims as Finn Noergaard, a 55-year-old documentary filmmaker, and 37-year-old Dan Uzan.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/14/2015

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The two attacks in Copenhagen occupy a lot of news space tonight. The final bit of information I got (via Vlad) was from Twitter:

Police in Copenhagen have shot a man near Nørrebro train station; condition of man unknown, police say.

In other news, tribal leaders in Iraq say that Anbar province may collapse under the ISIS onslaught within hours. Meanwhile, a camel in Yemen refuses to leave its dead owner’s grave.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Papa Whiskey, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

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Assassination Attempt on Lars Vilks

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Update 2/15/2015 12:15am

Live-blogging Copenhagen has closed; I’m going to bed.

The final bit of information I got (via Vlad) was from Twitter:

Police in Copenhagen have shot a man near Nørrebro train station; condition of man unknown, police say.

We’ll see what develops by the morning. You night owls and Europeans will know it before I do.

Update 10:25pm EST: Via Steen, the man shot in the head near the synagogue has died (Sveriges Radio, in Swedish).

Update 9:37pm EST: Gateway Pundit has lots of of links, photos, and video.

Update 8:50pm EST: Danish police say they have pretty much every available person called in and active. Live coverage indicates that night clubs are being evacuated.

Update 8:33pm EST: Here’s an English language link.

Update 8:18pm EST: Police are searching parks in central Copenhagen to find the attacker.

Update 7:58pm EST: Message from a Danish contact: There have been 2 attacks in Copenhagen this evening. My friend tells me that almost the whole of Copenhagen is shut down. I admit to receiving secondhand knowledge as I don’t have a TV.

Update 7:52pm EST: Unconfirmed: The Danish army seems to be in central Copenhagen.

Update 7:42pm EST:

In contrast to the shooting at the Vilks event, this is the core of Copenhagen. The very center.

Police with machine guns are everywhere. They’re all-in now.

Helicopters are trying to locate the perpetrator.

One person hit in the head. One policeman hit in the arm, one in the leg.

Update 7:39pm: Live feed from the synagogue shootings

Nørreport station is evacuated, trains aren’t stopping there for the time being.

The shooter is still at large, police say “Central Copenhagen cannot be considered safe.”

Update: 7:35pm EST: A Danish contact writes:

I just got a messag from [name] and he writes: 1 person shot in the head and 2 police officers right by a Jewish syagogue!!! Right by Nørreport Station, our main S-train hub.

Update 7:19pm EST: Danish Police: Shots Fired at Copenhagen Synagogue

Danish police are reporting that shots have been fired at a synagogue in Copenhagen.

No further details are available at present.

Update from Fjordman: Jyllands-Posten is now also stating that one civilian was killed, but no name is given.

Update 2: The Daily Mail has the story, with more photos and details. A Femen activist was one of the featured speakers.

Update 3, from Fjordman: The three policemen are not mortally wounded, according to the MSM.

Update, 6.18pm: The civilian killed in Saturday’s shooting attack was a 40-year-old Danish citizen, police have said. Police added that they have founded the suspected getaway vehicle but two suspects are still at large.

Update, 6.08pm: Reports of up to 200 shots fired

The French ambassdor to Denmark told AFP from inside the venue that shots rang out in the midst of a debate on Islam and free speech in Copenhagen.

“They fired on us from the outside. It was the same intention as [the January 7 attack on] Charlie Hebdo except they didn’t manage to get in,” Francois Zimeray said by telephone.

A group of would-be assassins attempted to kill Lars Vilks, the creator of the Modoggies, at a free-speech event today in Copenhagen. The Swedish artist had organized the event, and a number of guests, including the French ambassador to Denmark, were in attendance when the attack occurred. Mr. Vilks was unhurt, but several police officers were wounded. Thirty to forty shots were fired, and two gunmen are at large. According to The Telegraph, one civilian is said to have been killed, but this is unconfirmed.

Steen has a comprehensive discussion. It’s in Danish, but Google does a pretty good job of translating it. He says the event continued after the attack, which certainly sounds like Lars Vilks’ style — he doesn’t rattle easily

The event was entitled “Art, blasphemy and the freedom of expression”. Well, we know what Islam thinks about such topics. However, I’m sure everyone realizes that this incident had nothing to do with Islam.

More at the BBC.

I will be gone most of the afternoon, so check in at Steen’s place or Vlad’s place for updates.

Hat tip: The Dutch Patriot, in the comments.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/13/2015

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Thanks to a timely tip, police in Halifax, Nova Scotia were able to foil a plot in which four individuals had planned to carry out mass murder in a public place on St. Valentine’s Day, in accordance with their beliefs. A police commander did not say what those beliefs were, except that “they were not culturally based.” Officials also said the incident was not related to Islamic terrorism.

In other news, mujahideen for the Islamic State penetrated the perimeter of Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq, where 300 U.S. Marines are training Iraqi troops. Fortunately, Iraqi army forces were able to repel the attack and re-secure the base.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Papa Whiskey, Phyllis Chesler, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

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Islamism, Islamic Extremism, Radical Islam, Fundamentalist Islam, Moderate Islam, and… Islam

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At the end of Wednesday’s Defeat Jihad Summit, some of the invited speakers discussed the concept of “Radical Islam” (or “Islamism”, or “Islamic Fundamentalism”, etc.) vs. “Islam”, with no modifiers.

The excerpts below include contributions from the following people:

  • Diana West, author of American Betrayal
  • Major (ret.) Stephen Coughlin
  • Robert Muise of the American Freedom Law Center
  • Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy
  • Former CIA officer Clare Lopez
  • Admiral (ret.) James “Ace” Lyons
  • Stephen Coughlin again
  • Fred Fleitz, Center for Security Policy
  • Former FBI Special Agent John Guandolo

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for editing and annotating this video:

There’s a lot that could be noted about what various speakers said in the above video. Rather than point out anything in particular, I’ll leave it to our readers to add any observations they might have in the comments.

A Political Ideology Masquerading as a Religion

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Admiral (ret.) James “Ace” Lyons was one of the speakers at Wednesday’s Defeat Jihad Summit presented by the Center for Security Policy in Washington D.C. The following clip shows his remarks on Islam as a threat doctrine, and includes some surprising revelations about the feckless (to put it mildly) policies of successive presidential administrations regarding Islam.

For more than thirty-five years our national security professionals have chalked up failure after failure, but that doesn’t stop them from trying the same old strategies over and over again.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for editing and uploading this video:

The Best Spontaneity That Money Can Buy

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[Banner text:

Missing!

We miss our country. We used to have: freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, democracy, a Western Judeo-Christian culture, peace, security, safety and…, strength, justice and liberty, no gender (rest not readable). If you see this country anywhere, please help us find it.

(Translation: Conny Axel Meier)]

Remember those “spontaneous” rallies that used to be a feature of political life in East Bloc countries?

Thousands upon thousands of ordinary citizens would be conveyed (by enormous state-owned buses) to a central square of the capital, where they would march and chant while carrying (professionally printed) banners and signs, expressing their support for the People’s Republic of Brutopia and their vehement disgust with the United States, or Western Europe, or Rootless Cosmopolitans, or whoever was designated the enemy of the day.

The event would be filmed and distributed via newsreels or TV, acclaimed as the authentic voice of the citizens of the Socialist Workers’ Paradise.

You think that kind of thing is a quaint artifact of history, right? Something to be viewed on grainy back and white footage from a bygone era?

Think again. The East Bloc is alive and well, and presided over by a former apparatchik of the DDR.

It turns out that the recent anti-PEGIDA “citizens’ rally” in Dresden was actually a state-sponsored affair, organized by the government of Saxony. I don’t know whether the Ministry of Truth actually bussed people to the event, but showing up there certainly wouldn’t hurt one’s career, so the authorities were guaranteed a good turnout. To stand with the cheering crowd in Post Square was one way to acquire a seal of state approval for one’s courageous non-racist, non-Islamophobic opinions.

Below are two relevant articles translated by JLH. First, the MSM take on recent PEGIDA-related events, from Der Spiegel:

Islam Opponents in Dresden: PEGIDA Has Bachmann Back

February 2, 2015

He had stepped down as organizer of the Pegida demonstrations because of appearing with a Hitler look, but now Lutz Bachmann has once again been the speaker in Dresden. However, there were not so many people listening to him as before.

Dresden — Lutz Bachmann had stayed away from Pegida for a whole two and a half weeks, and now he was again on a stage for the anti-Islamic coalition: “We will go on. There is no other way,” he shouted to demonstrators in Dresden.

There were noticeably fewer than the last time. Police estimated that 2,000 people answered the call to demonstrate in Dresden’s inner city. Two weeks ago, the self-styled “Patriots Against the Islamization of the West” had brought more than 17,000 people the streets. The movement is losing support. Recently, the leadership team around Bachmann and ex-spokeswoman Kathrin Oertel disintegrated. After xenophobic comments and a photo of him as Adolf Hitler surfaced, Bachmann stepped down. His reappearance at a Pegida demo is being interpreted as indicating a lurch to the right by the movement.

The first demonstration by Oertel and other Pegida defectors in an initiative called “Direct Democracy for Europe” was also a failure. Only 500 people came to the demonstration by the moderate Pegida splinter group at the Dresden Frauenkirche.

The lights of this church, which was destroyed in WWII and later rebuilt, and is universally regarded as a symbol of peace and reconciliation, were extinguished Monday evening to express disapproval of xenophobia. In the nearby Post Square, the group, “Dresden for Everyone” demonstrated for tolerance and open-mindedness.

Police banned a demonstration of the Leipzig Pegida offshoot. The Islam-hostile group accepted this decision on Monday.

But blu-NEWS has a different view of the anti-PEGIDA rally in Dresden:

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De-Islamize The Netherlands!

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Earlier this week we posted a translated transcript of Geert Wilders’ rousing speech in the Dutch parliament.

Below is a subtitled version of Mr. Wilders’ forthright challenge to Prime Minister Rutte in the Tweede Kamer on February 11. Many thanks to SimonXML for timing the transcript, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript (the untimed transcript is here):

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/12/2015

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Eurozone finance ministers failed to reach an agreement on a new bailout plan for Greece, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she is ready to compromise. Meanwhile, both the Netherlands and Sweden are experiencing unacceptably low levels of inflation, verging into actual deflation. The Swedish central bank responded by announcing a program of quantitative easing, and the stock market rallied as a result.

In other news, the FBI says it will launch a new investigation into the fatal shooting of three Muslims in Chapel Hill yesterday, to determine whether any hate was involved.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Mithrandir, Papa Whiskey, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

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The Real Causes of “Man-Caused Disasters”

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Michael Mukasey served as Attorney General in the latter part of the George W. Bush administration. He was one of the featured speakers at yesterday’s Defeat Jihad Summit sponsored by the Center for Security Policy.

Below is a video of Mr. Mukasey’s remarks on Islamic violence, Koranic doctrine, and the Muslim Brotherhood. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for editing and excerpting this clip:

It’s a Long Way Down From Your High Horse

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JLH has taken a break from translating German to compose this timely allegory.

Don’t Get up on Your High Horse — It’s a Long Way Down

by JLH

President Obama’s recent and timely reminder of horrors only 1,000 years in our past has not gone unheeded. Some of us have read historical novels and we know what a nice fellow Salah-al-Din was and how well he got along with Richard Lion-Heart. He didn’t have to be polite about it. After all, the Crusaders were invading his sovereign territory, just because some namby-pamby Christians were complaining about genocide. Well, we all know how things like that can be exaggerated. Just look at the Holocaust. And that random shooting at some ethnic deli in Paris.

And don’t let the names fool you. Knights Hospitaller might sound good, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t handle a sword.

But we have a bigger problem right here and right now. Even as we congratulate ourselves that we have learned from the Enlightenment and the history of democracy in the Western World, and have every intention of avoiding the excesses of those ravening Crusaders from our past, something truly sinister is looming in what has been called the oldest, continuously functioning democracy in the world. It started quite a while after the Greek experiment, but unlike the Greek, was never interrupted by conquest or transitory dictatorships. Some have regarded its early form as quite rudimentary, in its employment of the quasi judicial-legislative body called the Thing, which seemed to operate as a blend of enlightened lobbying and the Swiss version of direct democracy.

I speak, of course, of Iceland, which had applied for membership in the EU, but backed away and is still on its own, even though its main trading partners are the EU and Norway, the land of its origins. The sinister development, which has been widely ignored, but was obviously foreseen by our president and most likely his religious mentors — the Reverend Wright, CAIR and, of course, Valerie Jarrett — is the unforeseen rise, after 1,000 dormant years, of the Norse religion. It has recently been announced that the organization Ásatrúarfélagið has begun construction of a temple to be dedicated to Thor, Odin and Frigg, that is, the CEO, the Hit-Man and the Big Mama of Norse religion. Two of the three are represented in the English names of the days of the week as Wednesday (Woden’s Day) and Thursday (Thor’s Day). Friday is dedicated to Freya, the goddess of love, but as Odin’s wife, the fertility mother and the most powerful woman in Asgard, and Frigg is arguably her alter ego.

For those who have not brushed up on the Viking era, the predecessors of our present-day Icelanders and co-devotees of the Norse religion were the residents of what are now Denmark, Norway and Sweden, who for reasons that are still being argued took to the seas to seek their fortunes through both trading and raiding. Both functions are attested by the variety of styles and sizes in their sturdy, clinker-built, sail- and oar-driven ships which crisscrossed the Baltic and North Seas, followed inland waterways south from Kiev to the Black Sea, poured out of the North Sea to cruise the coasts of Ireland, Britain, France and Spain and even into the Mediterranean Sea. Wherever one of the notorious, dragon-necked long ships appeared offshore, trembling townspeople and monks beseeched: “Oh Lord, spare us the fury of the Norsemen!” Possibly they sounded like the Christians, Jews, Yazidis and Kurds in Muslim territory today.

Even a thousand years later, as our president has reminded us, we cannot escape the opprobrium of those rascally Crusaders, one of whom actually bragged about wading through pools of pagan blood! (Wait…Why does that sound familiar?) And now we face the resurrection of the religion that fueled the Viking Age.

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After 100 Years, a New Islam Law for Austria: Part 4

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February 12, the Day of Reckoning

This is the conclusion of a four-part series on the new Islam Law. Previously: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Introduction to Part 4

by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff

On January 15, the parliamentary constitutional committee convened for the first time on the topic of the Law on Islam. This meeting included representatives of all parties in parliament as well as one expert nominated by each party. The Freedom Party called on Christian Zeitz for his expertise, while Team Stronach relied on Harald Fiegl to testify. Both decisions turned out to be good ones, as their testimony could not be refuted by anyone on committee, nor by the minister in charge of the drafting of the initial law.

Below are two news articles from the period, as translated by JLH. First, from the Austrian News Agency:

FPÖ Member Stefan: Islam Act: Back to the Start — The Act Does Not Achieve its Purpose

January 13, 2015

Expert Hearing in Parliament confirms the misgivings of the Austrian Freedom Party

Vienna: “Today’s expert hearing in Parliament has confirmed our reservations. The Islam Act in its present form does not achieve its goal. That is, it addresses only religious communities, but not the hundreds of organizations and Muslims per se. In order for the law’s provisions to include and be effective for all Muslims, the organizations would all have to be dissolved. And from what can be said as of now, that will not happen. The result will be that the organizations will continue as before and the law can simply not be applied to them,” says FPÖ spokesman Magister Harald Stefan.

“And even in the unlikely event — the probability is at nil — that the organizations are dissolved, even then the Islam Act would not be fulfilling its purpose, i.e., putting limits on radical Islam, thus enabling supervision and protecting all liberal Muslims loyal to the democratic rule of law, our constitution and human rights from Islamists,” admonishes Stefan. Furthermore, a number of special rights for Muslims would be introduced, and Stefan rejects that too.

“The wrong focus with halfhearted measures. Even if the idea of an Islam Act is good and justified, the execution has not succeeded. For the Islam Act, it can only be ‘Back to the beginning,’” says Stefan.

Secondly, from ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation):

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