In Austria, Parliament elected a far-right figure as its leader this Thursday, October 24. Walter Rosenkranz, member of the FPÖ, was elected thanks to the votes of his party, which came first in the legislative elections last September, and those of the conservatives. An election which shows that the far right is definitely no longer taboo in Austria, but which has been criticized by several organizations as well as the Jewish community.
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With our correspondent in Vienna, Isaure Hiace
In addition to the votes of the FPÖ, it was mainly those of the conservatives who allowed the election of Walter Rosenkranz as head of the Austrian Parliament. The leader of the conservatives and current chancellor Karl Nehammer justified this vote with “ the use », unwritten, which wants this position to go to the winning party in the legislative elections. But it shows how normalized the far right has become in Austria.
This election shocked the Greens who speak of a “ disastrous signal » as well as several associations and organizations. Because Walter Rosenkranz, 62, is a member of a far-right corporation, the Burschenschaft Libertas, which has a long anti-Semitic history behind it.
The president of the Mauthausen committee, an organization of deportees, speaks of “ a shameless mockery of all the victims of Nazism “. The representative of the Jewish community of Vienna, Oskar Deutsch, had, even before this vote, denounced the possible election of a man from “ revisionist camp “.
It must be said that it is a strategic position, the second in the State in the protocol order, that Walter Rosenkranz will now occupy. Its mission includes supervising the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for victims of National Socialism. Walter Rosenkranz, for his part, promised to continue the fight against anti-Semitism.
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