In Wealthy City, a Marxist Mayor Wins Over Voters

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, this Communist politician in Graz, Austria, wants to redistribute wealth, but a focus on housing, her own modest lifestyle and a hard childhood have helped her popularity.

The iconic bell tower in the wealthy city of Graz, Austria, which is led by a Communist mayor, Elke Kahr. | Marylise Vigneau for The New York Times
THE SATURDAY PROFILE
GRAZ, Austria — That the conservative mayor would win yet again, and serve a fifth term, had been treated as a foregone conclusion in Graz, Austria’s second-largest city, a place where it’s not uncommon to encounter local residents proudly dressed in traditional lederhosen and dirndls.

Elke Kahr, the leader of the city’s Communist Party, was equally convinced she would lose again to the slick heir to a trading dynasty who had led the city for 18 years.

So she was as surprised as the journalist who told her the election news last September: The Communists had emerged victorious, and she would be the next mayor.

“He was completely bewildered — and I thought it was a joke,” Ms. Kahr recalled of her election night conversation with the reporter at City Hall.

Newspapers across Europe started calling the city “Leningraz,” a moniker the new mayor smiles about.

“Yes, 100 percent, I’m a convinced Marxist,” Ms. Kahr said in her mayoral office, flanked by the used Ikea shelves with which she displaced the stately furniture of her predecessor, Siegfried Nagl, of the Austrian People’s Party, or Ö.V.P.

Ms. Kahr, 60, is now trying to “redistribute wealth” as much as her role allows her to, she said.

But that doesn’t mean that her Communist Party of Austria, or K.P.Ö., plans to dispossess the bourgeoisie or abolish the free market. Ms. Kahr said her goal was “to alleviate the problems of the people in our city as much as possible.” » | Denise Hruby | Friday, August 12, 2022

Nazi Victims' Mass Graves Found in Austria Under Football Pitch
THE TELEGRAPH: Two mass graves containing scores of people murdered by the Nazis during the Second World War have been found underneath an army football pitch in Austria, government officials said on Friday.

Some of the remains may be the bodies of US pilots shot down and imprisoned during the war.

Police Col. Rudolf Gollia, an interior ministry spokesman, said his ministry plans talks with the owners of the site to discuss exhumation.

The mass graves are located in bomb craters underneath the army sports field in the southern city of Graz. Officials said they contain about 70 bodies of victims killed by the SS to eliminate witnesses to Nazi atrocities shortly before Soviet troops arrived. >>> | Friday, March 12, 2010

Austria’s Far-right Shows Its Strength
Youths make an illegal Nazi salute at a Freedom Party demonstration in Graz, Austria, May 2009. Photo courtesy of Global Post
GLOBAL POST: GRAZ, Austria — Flushed with recent electoral success, the Austrian far-right's bid for seats in the European Parliament has come with a level of xenophobic, pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim antics not seen for years — and in many cases against the law.

This is where "where the path of open doors takes you" said Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of the Freedom Party (FP), the largest far-right party in Austria, surveying the hall in which rival Sikh sects clashed May 24. The incident left Sant Rama Anand, a 57-year-old preacher, shot dead, 16 others injured and triggered rioting in India. According to Ewald Stadler, the main candidate for the FP's smaller breakaway rival, Alliance for the Future (AF), it was time for a travel ban on "problem gurus."

The week before, the FP's Martin Graf, deputy president of parliament, had said Jewish community leader Ariel Muzicant was the "instigator of anti-fascist left-wing terrorism." His comments even went too far for the AF, which is now keen to be seen as the more sober face of the far-right. The governing coalition has called for Graf's resignation. >>> By Phil Cain | Saturday, May 30, 2009

Winter verurteilt: „Muss Religion beleidigen dürfen“
DIE PRESSE: Die FPÖ-Abgeordnete Susanne Winter wurde zu 24.000 Euro Geldstrafe und drei Monaten bedingter Haft verurteilt. "Ich bin aufgewühlt", sagte Winter nach der Urteilsverkündung. Sie beruft.

GRAZ. Ihre Verbitterung über das Urteil entlud sich in einer kleinen unbewussten Handbewegung. Während Susanne Winter nach der Urteilsverkündung bereits erste Interviews gab, knickte sie wenige Zentimeter unter dem Strauß von vorgehaltenen Mikrofonen den Stängel der mitgebrachten Schwertlilie zwischen ihren Fingern. Die Blume, Symbol für Reinheit und Unschuld, hatte der FPÖ-Politikern nicht das erhoffte Glück gebracht.

„Ich bin aufgewühlt“, bekannte Winter in einer ersten Replik auf den – nicht rechtskräftigen – Schuldspruch: drei Monate bedingte Haft und 24.000 Euro Geldstrafe unbedingt. „Ein unverständliches Urteil“, befand Winter. >>> Klaus Höfler | Donnerstag, 22. Januar 2009

Das Urteil: Susanne Winter wurde aufgrund ihrer Aussagen im Gemeinderatswahlkampf wegen Verhetzung nicht rechtskräftig zu einer bedingten Haftstrafe von drei Monaten und zu einer unbedingten Geldstrafe von 24.000 Euro verurteilt. [Quelle: Die Presse]

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Taschenbuch) – Deutschland & Österreich >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Gebundene Ausgabe) – Deutschland & Österreich >>>

Susanne Winter: In 20 oder 30 Jahren wird die Hälfte von Österreichs Bevolkerung muslimisch sein
Foto von Susanne Winters dank Google Images
SUEDDEUTSCHE.DE: Im Wahlkampf fliegen in der Alpenrepublik seit jeher die Fetzen. Doch was eine Vertreterin der rechtsnationalistischen FPÖ über den Islam und seinen Propheten Mohammed von sich gab, hat nun den Staatsanwalt auf den Plan gerufen.

Eigentlich ist Susanne Winter nur Spitzenkandidatin ihrer Partei für die Gemeindewahl in Graz. Nun ist die blonde Vertreterin der Rechtspopulisten auch weit über die Grenzen der Steiermark bekannt.

Winter hatte am Sonntag bei einer Wahlveranstaltung gefordert, der Islam gehöre "dorthin zurückgeworfen, wo er hergekommen ist, hinter das Mittelmeer". Über die Ehe des Propheten Mohammed mit einer Sechsjährigen sagte Winter: "Im heutigen System" wäre der Religionsgründer "ein Kinderschänder". Zudem bezeichnete sie Mohammed als Feldherren, der den Koran in "epileptischen Anfällen" geschrieben habe.

Am Montag legte Winter dann in einem Interview mit der Tageszeitung Österreich nach und erklärte, dass Kindesmissbrauch bei muslimischen Männern "weit verbreitet" sei. Zugleich warnte die Politikerin vor einem "muslimischen Einwanderungs-Tsunami" in Graz. In 20 oder 30 Jahren werde die Hälfte von Österreichs Bevölkerung muslimisch sein. Politikerin nennt Mohammed einen "Kinderschänder" >>>

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL:
Austrian Politician Calls Prophet Muhammad a 'Child Molester': A candidate campaigning for the Graz city council in Austria says it is time that Islam was "thrown back ... behind the Mediterranean," and alleges Muhammad wrote the Koran in "epileptic fits."

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