Victorian One Nation candidate dumped over Hitler comments

One Nation's candidate for the Labor-held seat of Preston, Franco Guardiani, has been dumped over a social media post where he appeared to praise Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.A social media post from Mr Guardiani circulated today showed him labelling Adolf Hitler as the "GOAT", an acronym for "the greatest of all time".Mr Guardiani confirmed to the ABC that the social media account was his."The party does what it sees fit,'' he said of being dropped as a candidate for the seat in Melbourne's north.Mr Guardiani said he believed in free speech and that people should be able to express their views and question things.He twice ran as a candidate for the overlapping federal seat of Batman in 2013 and 2016, first for the Palmer United Party, then as an independent.Mr Guardiani's posts and reposts on X suggest support for a range of conspiratorial, anti-Semitic and anti-Islam ideas."Jews created Islam to destroy Christianity while making out they are our friends," he tweeted in February this year.In December last year, Mr Guardiani responded to a tweet from the Campaign Against Antisemitism to say he was "just asking" whether there was evidence 6 million Jews were killed by Germany during the Holocaust.In addition to the "GOAT" tweet, Mr Guardiani had twice reposted posts praising Hitler.Mr Guardiani had reposted tweets praising Hitler and Nazi Germany on several occasions — including a retweet of post featuring footage of Nazi troops that claimed Allied forces who defeated Nazi Germany "were not the heroes of humanity".He has also tweeted claims about weather modification being orchestrated by "the globalist [sic] using technology and chemtrails" and that all "pilots need to be charged with conspiracy to harm us and the atmosphere".Two of Mr Guardiani's tweets were in defence of Sean Black, who was quietly rehired by One Nation to be federal campaign manager despite being convicted of rape in 2018."At least he is a convicted rapist and not a Muslim rapist who never gets convicted," Mr Guardiani said of Black, who left One Nation after his employment by the party became public earlier this year.In a statement, One Nation's Victorian leader Warren Pickering addressed Mr Guardiani's comments related to the Holocaust."At a time when Jewish Australians are experiencing unprecedented persecution, we are appalled that these comments have been made," Mr Pickering said.One Nation Victoria's leader Warren Pickering says there is no place for abhorrent views. (ABC News)"As soon as we became aware, we acted. Preston candidate Franco Guardiani is no longer part of our party," he said."Anyone who holds such views is on notice: they do not have a place in One Nation."The party has conceded its vetting process needs improvement.Mr Guardiani is not the first candidate to be dumped, with One Nation forced to move on its former Melbourne candidate, Matthew Collins,over his misogynistic social media posts.Earlier today, Liberal leader Jess Wilson confirmed the Coalition would preference One Nation ahead of Labor, the Greens and Victorian Socialists on how-to-vote preference cards for the November 28 state election.Candidate nominations for the Victorian state election closed on November 9, with early voting opening on November 18.Labor has held Preston since the seat was first contested in 1945, but could be set for a tight contest with the Greens this election.