Austria's first far-right president in parliament

Photo: Alex Halada Agence France-Presse Walter Rosenkranz, 62, received 100 votes out of 162 cast.

Blaise Gauquelin – Libération In Vienna

Published at 16:10

• Europe

The Austrian parliament elected a far-right figure as its first leader on Thursday, and the Jewish community is outraged by the appointment of a man who “pays homage to Nazi criminals.”

Walter Rosenkranz, 62, received 100 votes out of 162 cast, announced the outgoing president of the chamber, Wolfgang Sobotka, after the vote in Vienna.

This choice follows the historic victory of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) in the legislative elections at the end of September.

Mr. Rosenkranz was elected by secret ballot with a narrow majority, mainly thanks to the votes of his political family and the conservatives of the Austrian People's Party (OVP).

In a country where the extreme right is no longer taboo, the outgoing chancellor, Karl Nehammer, justified this vote by the “custom” and “tradition” that the post goes to the party that wins the elections.

But other MPs said they wanted to “follow their conscience”, citing their “unwavering anti-fascism” to vote against a “Europhobe” from a party “increasingly close to the identitarians”.

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Burschenschaft

This is one of the highest functions of the Republic. If the head of state leaves his post, the president of the Parliament replaces him with his two vice-presidents, within a collegiate body. He also chairs the National Fund for Victims of Nazism.

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Faced with those who believe that his election “would endanger the future of Jews in Austria”, Walter Rosenkranz denounced “lies” upon his inauguration and promised that “what has been undertaken in this assembly to combat anti-Semitism will obviously be continued”.

In the event of a boycott of the commemorations by the Jewish community, which has always refused any contact with the FPO, because of his presence, he would agree to step aside.

The head of the FPO, Herbert Kickl, praised Walter Rosenkranz's “unwavering loyalty” “to our dear Republic of Austria” and “his unfailing loyalty to democracy, the Constitution and the rule of law”.

This criminal lawyer, a former presidential candidate, is part of since 1981 of a far-right society (Burschenschaft), Libertas, which introduced the Aryan paragraph in 1878, prohibiting the integration of Jews.

During the Second World War, many Burschenschafters were involved in the Nazi extermination machine in Austria annexed by Adolf Hitler.

“This paragraph has long since been abolished,” Rosenkranz recently said in an interview with the Austrian press, stressing that “all sorts of things can be dug up from the Internet.”

Excluded from the negotiations

Before the vote, Oskar Deutsch, the representative of the Jewish Community of Vienna (IKG), expressed his outrage in an open letter to MPs about the profile of this man from the “revisionist camp”, who “pays outright homage to Nazi criminals.”

The Greens also spoke out against this “disastrous signal”, “incompatible with Europe”, seeing it as “an affront to all survivors” of Nazism.

The Austrian Mauthausen Committee (MKO), which represents former concentration camp deportees, deemed such a choice “unacceptable.”

In an article published by a far-right newspaper, Walter Rosenkranz “praised Nazi Attorney General Johann Stich, who executed 44 resistance fighters,” stressed MKO President Willi Mernyi. A text defended by the person concerned in a 2022 interview.

Another element of which he is criticized is the award by his company to the neo-Nazi group Bund Freier Jugend for its resistance to state repression. Mr Rosenkranz said he was not involved in the decision, but “supported the decisions” of his peers.

The FPO recruits its executives from closed, hierarchical male brotherhoods, whose students bond for life, practice initiatory sword duels and remain influential among the elite.

Although the party managed to secure the presidency of Parliament, it remains excluded from negotiations to form a government for lack of allies.

Faced with the impasse, the Austrian president, Alexander Van der Bellen, this week gave the mandate to the conservatives, who came second, who officially begin discussions on Friday with the social democrats, who came third.