Harald Vilimsky

Harald Vilimsky
MEP
Harald Vilimsky MEP
	Official portrait, 2024
Member of the European Parliament ; for Austria
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 1 July 2014
Personal details
Born	22 July 1966 (age 58); Vienna, Austria
Political party	Freedom Party of Austria
Children	1

Harald Vilimsky (born 22 July 1966) is an Austrian far-right^[1] politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Austria. He is a member of the Freedom Party of Austria, part of the Patriots for Europe.

Controversies

In December 2008, Vilimsky caused a stir with a controversial self-experiment, in which a journalist also took part. In the presence of an emergency doctor, he allowed prison guards to shoot him with an electric shock gun, which is used in prisons to temporarily incapacitate aggressive prisoners. This was to convince the public that the device, according to Vilimsky, is harmless. ^[2]

In July 2018, Vilimsky caused a stir when he accused EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker of alcoholism. Juncker was seen staggering and weak on his feet at the NATO summit on 11 and 12 July 2018. Vilimsky and other European right-wing populist politicians (including those from the German AfD ) accused him of being drunk and called for Juncker's immediate resignation. According to Vilimsky, Juncker was making Europe "a laughing stock" with this behaviour.^[3]

Personal life

His mother was a nurse and raised him together with his stepfather, an insurance broker, in the Vienna district of Favoriten. He never met his biological father, and was 16 years old when his mother died. After lower school, he attended a commercial academy and graduated there. He then studied economics and dropped out. From 1988 to 1990 he attended a university course in public relations at the University of Vienna. He is married and has a daughter.^[4]