This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
Seventy years after the Nazis unleashed the Kristallnacht pogrom in Germany and Austria, the scourge of antisemitism still persists. In 1938 and 1939, the Jews of those countries were forced to leave, but not all of them could find refuge in the democratic countries. And many of those who were successful in entering France, Belgium, Netherlands and other European countries were later caught by the Nazi machine and murdered.
Continue reading ‘Combating Antisemitism in Europe’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
Flushed with its success in September’s elections, the right-wing extremist Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) is urging moves to scrap the Austrian law that bans Nazi activity and attempts to revive Nazism. Norbert Hofer, an FPÖ MP, has suggested a referendum to test public opinion on abolition of the law. He is supported by his party’s leader Heinz-Christian Strache.
Continue reading ‘Austria’s Far Right and Selective Free Speech’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
Martin Graf, a member of the extreme right “Olympia” organization, has been elected as the third president of the Austrian parliament with 109 votes (out of a total of 182).
Continue reading ‘Austria: Right Wing Extremist Elected Parliament President’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
UPDATE, OCTOBER 16: Haider’s successor has confirmed that Haider was drunk - very drunk - when he crashed his car.
The Austrian papers are full of pictures of the suntanned politician Jörg Haider, who was a man for all seasons and who learned the lesson from American politicians to always smile and to shake hands with everybody. If one could believe some newspapers and some declarations of the Austrian political elite, a sort of Austrian Mother Teresa has passed away. The former Social Democrat Heinz Fischer, who is now President of Austria, described Haider’s death as a “human tragedy.”
Continue reading ‘Jörg Haider: A Leader Who Died As He Lived’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
Austria does usually not make international political headlines, but managed to do so on 28 September when the country’s main two extreme right wing parties, the Freedom Party (FPÖ) led by H.C. Strache and the Alliance for Austria’s Future (BZÖ) led by Jörg Haider, together won 29% of the parliamentary election vote, giving the lie to those who claim that the extreme right is going to be marginal in Austria.
Continue reading ‘Austria: The Fascist Stench Returns’
