Freedom of speech in the European Union

It probably doesn't help that the insults included 'fascist'. My experience suggests folks in western Europe get quite upset by that term, and likely in Austria the effect is especially pronounced.

Well, not nearly as upset as in Eastern Europe. The entire separatist movement in Ukraine is rooted in Russian media propaganda saying the government in Kiev was taken over by 'the same fascists we defeated in the Great Patriotic War. I shit you not, it is on TV there every day.