EUROPEAN JEWISH PRESS: VIENNA---The Austrian Jewish community has criticized the election Tuesday by the new Austrian Parliament of an extreme-rightist MP known to be a nostalgic of the Third Reich, as its vice-president, [sic]
Martin Graf, a 48-year-old lawyer, is a member of a student fraternity union called “Olympia” that has contacts with neo-nazis [sic] and Holocaust deniers. He is also an MP from the extreme-right Freedom Party (FPO) [FPÖ] which has made important gains in general elections last month.
70 percent of the members of the Austrian parliament supported Graf’s candidacy, including the mainstream conservative People’s Party (OVP) [ÖVP].
In the last two weeks, former concentration camp inmates, Vienna's Jewish community, artists and other members of the civil society had written several open letters to MPs, asking them not to vote for Graf.
Austrian MPs "made a symbolic decision which can lead to a further strengthening of the right-wing extremist camp and which shows little sensibility for Austrian history and the tragic results of German nationalism," the Vienna Jewish community said.
“The fact that he could be elected vice-president of the Austrian Parliament should light warning signals not only in Austria but all over Europe,” the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem said. >>> Joseph Rottenmeier | October 30, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
