One Nation Dumps Franco Guardiani After Hitler Posts
One Nation disendorsed Preston candidate Franco Guardiani after social media posts praising Adolf Hitler and questioning the Holocaust surfaced. The move came hours after Liberal leader Jess Wilson confirmed the Coalition would generally put One Nation ahead of Labor on its Victorian election how-to-vote cards, with exceptions considered case by case.
One Nation disendorsed Preston candidate Franco Guardiani in Victoria on Tuesday after social media posts praising Adolf Hitler and questioning the Holocaust surfaced, hours after the state Liberals confirmed they would generally preference One Nation ahead of Labor.
The decision puts the Liberals’ case-by-case exception for candidates with offensive views under immediate scrutiny. Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said the party would consider lowering a One Nation candidate’s preference if that candidate held offensive views.
One Nation’s Victorian leader, Warren Pickering, said the party acted after learning of the posts Tuesday morning. “As soon as we became aware, we acted. Preston candidate Franco Guardiani is no longer part of our party,” he said.
Guardiani’s account described Hitler as “GOAT,” an acronym for “greatest of all time,” in response to a social media prompt asking people to describe the Nazi leader. He also questioned whether the six million Jews killed by Germans in the Holocaust had been identified and their bodies found.
Pickering said the comments were unacceptable. “Anyone who holds such views is on notice: they do not have a place in One Nation,” he said.
Wilson confirmed the Liberal and National parties’ preference plan at a press conference Tuesday. She said Coalition how-to-vote cards would put Labor, the Greens and the Victorian Socialists at the bottom, with other parties above them.
“The only way to change the government is for a number one next to the Liberals and Nationals,” Wilson said. She added that decisions about individual candidates would depend on who was running in each electorate.
Wilson said the party was conducting due diligence on more than 700 candidates. “And in those cases, we will make decisions dependent on the candidates within each electorate,” she said.
Labor minister Anthony Carbines said the preference decision showed Wilson would work cooperatively with One Nation in parliament. “They’re going to back each other in because they want to back each other in government,” he said.
Carbines said Labor would put One Nation last and would probably preference the Greens ahead of the Liberals. Wilson has ruled out formal deals with One Nation, while polling suggests the Coalition may be able to form a majority government on its own.
Guardiani said the posts were his and expressed disappointment at the party’s decision. “I just believe in free speech and I think people should always be able to express their views,” he said.
