Austrian far-right party ditches ‘Nazi’ flower

VIENNA, Austria – Austria’s far-right Freedom Party raises eyebrows in parliament on Thursday by ditching their usual blue cornflowers, a symbol associated by many with Nazism despite the party’s strenuous denials.

The anti-immigration party’s 51 MPs instead sport an edelweiss, a white-and-yellow Alpine flower, in their lapels at the opening session of parliament following last month’s elections.

The edelweiss stands for “courage, bravery and love,” FPOe leader Heinz-Christian Strache, who is set to become deputy premier in a likely coalition currently being negotiated with the conservatives, said on Wednesday.

Traditionally, like when parliament last opened after elections in 2013, FPOe lawmakers have worn cornflowers, which matches the party’s colors and which it said symbolizes the ideals of the 1848 liberal revolutions in Europe.

However critics say that the cornflower is better known from being worn by Austrian Nazis as a secret way of recognizing each other when they were banned in the 1930s, before Adolf Hitler annexed his native country in 1938.

— AFP