Austrian politician Jörg Haider was perhaps most notorious for making favorable comments about Adolf Hitler’s employment policies. But for many Austrians, the satire by comedy duo “Stermann & Grisseman” that aired on public television just days after the far-right leader’s death last October was over the top.

The show ridiculed Austrians’ extreme deference to Haider, and pulled no punches when mimicking his campaign manager Stefan Petzner, who had sobbed openly before cameras, and in one interview admitted to being Haider’s gay lover.

After a deluge of complaints, death threats and a murder attempt on the show’s organizer, the comedians canceled their December appearance in Klagenfurt, the capital of Carinthia, where Haider had been Governor.

So instead, the University of Klagenfurt convened a forum last Thursday to discuss the boundaries of artistic expression in a democratic society. The six-person panel sat Mr. Petzner just a few feet away from outspoken Haider critic Dr. Klaus Ottomeyer, who once described the populist, anti-immigrant leader as a “sadistic Robin Hood to whom people can delegate their own feelings of revenge and anger without doing anything themselves.”

The 27-year-old Petzner opened by saying that while artistic freedom is important, there is a point where one person’s freedom can cross the line and infringe upon somebody else’s. This drew peels of laughter from a small group of students, prompting Petzner to defensively address them: “You may laugh,” he belted into the microphone with a deep southern accent, “but I take this seriously.” An elderly woman and “life-long” Carinthian sitting in the front row stated that people who were offended by Stermann & Grissemann could have just turned off the TV.

Theater producer Bernd Liepold-Mosser, who sat next to Petzner, said that amidst an atmosphere of public mourning, his Letter to the Editor criticizing Haider’s record prompted numerous calls of support, which surprised him, and signaled strongly that Carinthians weren’t all like minded about their fallen Governor.

The discussion often bled into the Future Party’s stance on immigrants’ rights, and the remote Alpine detention center that Haider had established for foreign asylum seekers.

During the Q&A period, one student asked the perma-tanned Petzner whether he thought asylum seekers should have equal freedom to access the solariums. Petzner declined to answer, perhaps in part because the question had been spitefully prefaced as one that was suitable to his intellectual level.

Petzner’s level of moral consistency was also challenged. Because Haider had died in a car accident while drunk and driving over the speed limit, fellow panelist and psychology professor Oliver Vitouch asked Petzner what the Future Party’s reaction would have been if an immigrant had died in the same way. Petzner deflected the question, saying that he had already answered it at the time of Haider’s death.

Petzner and Ottomeyer locked horns after the former declared his chief concern was for the wellbeing of Carinthians. The gray-bearded Ottomeyer gave an emotive response in favor of empathy for other cultures, citing the abuses of Hitler and Stalin as extreme examples of jingoism. He demanded a response from Petzner, who clarified: “I didn’t say I didn’t have empathy for other cultures, just more empathy for Carinthians.” The crowd booed.

A cheeky blond German student in the back of the auditorium, whose blue and red cap made him resemble a bellboy, asked Ottomeyer whether the detention center could really be all that bad, considering its location in a pristine vacation destination where the student and his family had often summered. Ottomeyer replied that it’s a lot different when you’re forced to stay there. The student had addressed Ottomeyer as a “fellow German national”. Speaking in a clear, High German dialect, Ottomeyer corrected him: “I’m an Austrian”. The crowd erupted in applause.

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