Far-right’s election win raises fears among Austria’s Jewish community

The far-right FPÖ’s election success has raised concern among Austrian Jews, with community leaders noting the party’s links to Nazism and frequent incidents involving extremist symbols.

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The Jewish community in Austria has voiced their concern following the recent electoral success of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ). 
The FPÖ party secured approximately 29 percent of the vote in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, marking its best result to date. On Tuesday, Oskar Deutsch, President of the Jewish Community of Vienna (IKG), expressed these concerns in a statement to the German Press Agency (dpa).

READ ALSO: Who voted for Austria’s far-right party, and what were their motives?
“The electoral success of the FPÖ has a threatening effect on many,” Deutsch said, highlighting the community’s unease regarding the FPÖ political stance.
He noted that the Freedom Party is not merely a right-wing party like others in Europe but is the political arm of “German nationalist fraternities”, he said, many of which maintain links to National Socialism.
Recent troubling incidents
Deutsch pointed to recent incidents involving FPÖ politicians, including their attendance at a funeral where an SS allegiance song was sung. “There are incidents like this every few weeks. They are part of the FPÖ’s DNA and remind us why we can talk about basement Nazis in the FPÖ,” he stated.
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He also talked about a contrast between the FPÖ’s public persona and affiliations. “In public, the FPÖ politicians were posing as democrats; in the cellars of the fraternities, they were unpacking Nazi songbooks,” he said. 
Despite the FPÖ win, Deutsch noted that over 71 percent of voters chose parties that explicitly oppose the far-right party’s participation in government. 
The other political parties have so far ruled out cooperation with the FPÖ, either entirely or with its leader, Herbert Kickl, as the nation navigates this new political reality. Austrian politicians will now spend the next weeks and possibly months trying to find agreements to form a coalition government—probably without the party with the most votes.
READ NEXT: How would a far-right government in Austria affect the lives of foreigners?

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The Jewish community in Austria has voiced their concern following the recent electoral success of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ). 
The FPÖ party secured approximately 29 percent of the vote in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, marking its best result to date. On Tuesday, Oskar Deutsch, President of the Jewish Community of Vienna (IKG), expressed these concerns in a statement to the German Press Agency (dpa).
READ ALSO: Who voted for Austria’s far-right party, and what were their motives?
“The electoral success of the FPÖ has a threatening effect on many,” Deutsch said, highlighting the community’s unease regarding the FPÖ political stance.
He noted that the Freedom Party is not merely a right-wing party like others in Europe but is the political arm of “German nationalist fraternities”, he said, many of which maintain links to National Socialism.
Recent troubling incidents
Deutsch pointed to recent incidents involving FPÖ politicians, including their attendance at a funeral where an SS allegiance song was sung. “There are incidents like this every few weeks. They are part of the FPÖ’s DNA and remind us why we can talk about basement Nazis in the FPÖ,” he stated.
He also talked about a contrast between the FPÖ’s public persona and affiliations. “In public, the FPÖ politicians were posing as democrats; in the cellars of the fraternities, they were unpacking Nazi songbooks,” he said. 
Despite the FPÖ win, Deutsch noted that over 71 percent of voters chose parties that explicitly oppose the far-right party’s participation in government. 
The other political parties have so far ruled out cooperation with the FPÖ, either entirely or with its leader, Herbert Kickl, as the nation navigates this new political reality. Austrian politicians will now spend the next weeks and possibly months trying to find agreements to form a coalition government—probably without the party with the most votes.
READ NEXT: How would a far-right government in Austria affect the lives of foreigners?