Austria rightist leader slammed for ‘Jews’ comment

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Heinz-Christian Strache slammed by country’s Jewish community for likening anti-fascist protests to the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust. Austria’s Jewish community accused the country’s leading far-right politician on Monday of a “monstrous provocation” for what a newspaper said were comments likening anti-fascist protests to the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust. Rival politicians also attacked Heinz-Christian Strache, who hopes to be Austria’s next chancellor, after the report in Der Standard, which said its reporter overheard Strache make the remarks at a Vienna ball on Friday night. Guests at the WKR ball had to run the gauntlet of protesters who say the student fraternity event draws extreme-right activists from across Europe, a charge its organizers deny. “We are the new Jews”, Standard quoted Strache, the head of the Freedom Party, Austria’s biggest opposition party, as telling fellow ball guests, apparently not realizing a journalist was within earshot. The paper also quoted Strache as saying demonstrators’ attacks on arriving guests “were like the Reichskristallnacht”, or Night of Broken Glass, Nazi thugs’ violent anti-Jewish pogroms in November 1938.

via jpost: Austria rightist leader slammed for ‘Jews’ comment

siehe auch: Austria’s Freedom Party leader says far-rightists are ‘the new Jews’. At controversial Vienna ball, far-right leader Hans-Christian Strache compares demonstrations against far-right students with persecution of Jews. (…) It drew some 2,600 demonstrators, critical of the fact that the event coincided with the Holocaust memorial day. “We are the new Jews,” the Freedom Party (FPOe) chief was quoted as saying to others attendees in conversation, reacting to leftist and radical protesters who had heckled some guests as they arrived at the venue. Other political parties said the comment was outrageous, and Vienna’s Jewish community announced it would report the incident to the prosecutor’s office; Breite Empörung über Straches Juden-Vergleiche. Der STANDARD-Bericht über Aussagen von FPÖ-Chef Heinz-Christian Strache schlägt hohe Wellen – Nach seinem Vergleich mit der Judenverfolgung wird dieser angezeigt, andere Parteien halten ihn für “untragbar”. Nach seinem Juden-Vergleich ist Heinz-Christian Strache für den Präsidenten der Israelitischen Kultusgemeinde (IKG), Ariel Muzicant, “politisch in keiner Funktion mehr tragbar.” Das sagte Muzicant am Montag in Fernsehinterviews. Die IKG will gegen den FPÖ-Chef Anzeige erstatten.

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• Austrian far right celebrates on Holocaust holiday (cbsnews.com)
• Some slam Nazis; others gather for right-wing ball (seattletimes.nwsource.com)