Austria Protesters prevent FPÖ politician from commemorating pogroms

Jewish demonstrators have prevented Austria's right-wing parliamentary president Walter Rosenkranz from laying a wreath to commemorate the November pogroms of 1938.

Members of a Jewish student association formed a human chain around the Holocaust memorial on Judenplatz in Vienna in protest against the FPÖ politician.

The demonstrators held a banner with the inscription: "Whoever honors Nazis, their word is worth nothing!" Following the FPÖ's election victory at the end of September, Rosenkranz is the first FPÖ politician to chair the National Council. From the point of view of Jewish organizations, he is not acceptable as President of Parliament because of his membership in a right-wing fraternity and his problematic understanding of history.

After a brief discussion with the demonstrators, Rosenkranz left without having laid the wreath. He had planned this gesture after the Jewish Community had excluded the FPÖ from an official act to commemorate the pogroms against Jews. This event took place with politicians from all other parliamentary parties at a different memorial.

SDA