One Nation dumps Victorian election candidate who praised Adolf Hitler as ‘GOAT’
Party disendorses Preston candidate Franco Guardiani after social media posts emerge One Nation Victoria has disendorsed a candidate whose private social media account described Adolf Hitler as the “GOAT” and claimed that “importing Islam is making pedophilia legal”. In a now deleted social media post, the party’s candidate for Preston, Franco Guardiani, commented on a social media post on X…
One Nation Victoria has dismissed Franco Guardiani, the candidate for Preston, following the revelation of his private social media posts. Guardiani had praised Adolf Hitler, referring to him as the "GOAT," which stands for "greatest of all time." Moreover, he made Islamophobic comments, suggesting that importing Islam is leading to the legalization of pedophilia.
The party became aware of these posts on Tuesday morning and swiftly disendorsed Guardiani shortly thereafter. Warren Pickering, the party's Victorian leader, expressed shock and outrage at the candidate's remarks, stating that they were made at a particularly sensitive time when Jewish Australians are facing unprecedented persecution. Pickering emphasized that anyone holding such views is no longer welcome within the party.
The candidate's X account also contained several other Islamophobic comments, including references to destructive actions against mosques. There is also evidence of the candidate engaging with posts from the anti-immigrant group, Knights Templar International. The exact reason for the lack of detection of these views during the candidate selection and vetting processes remains unclear.
The party, however, has pledged to invest more resources into refining this process in the future. As of now, Guardiani is no longer listed as a One Nation candidate on the party's official website.
Written by urgent.news from The Guardian's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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