Protest held outside Austrian parliament against event honoring declared antisemite

VIENNA — Dozens of people rallied in Vienna on Tuesday against an event hosted by Austria’s first far-right parliamentary speaker that was denounced by critics as antisemitic.

Parliament elected Walter Rosenkranz as speaker after his far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) topped national polls last year for the first time — though they failed to form a government.

But Rosenkranz has faced widespread criticism for his membership of a student fraternity known for its strident pan-German nationalism, and the country’s main Jewish organization has ruled out working with him.

On Tuesday evening, Rosenkranz went ahead with the event in parliament named after Franz Dinghofer, an Austrian vice chancellor in the 1920s, despite historians urging him to stop it, pointing out that Dinghofer was a member of the Nazi party during World War II.

The event, which has been held in parliament in the past and is billed by the FPOe as a “symposium,” drew criticism from Austria’s Jewish community and major political parties.

About 200 protesters gathered in front of the parliament building on Tuesday, according to an AFP journalist.

“Dinghofer was an antisemite and a Nazi party member during WWII,” said Lia Guttmann, co-president of the Austrian Union of Jewish Students group.

Guttmann said they were therefore holding a “counter-symposium” outside parliament against what she called “historical amnesia.”

Some protesters held up placards that read “No place for antisemitism” or “Shame.”

Susanne Scholl, 76, joined the protest because she was “outraged and concerned” that “in the Austrian parliament, in this country of perpetrators, a Nazi will be honored in 2025.”

“We have to stand up and we have to be loud and say that we are against it, that enough is enough with all these excuses,” she added.

Last week, more than a dozen historians said parliament was being made “the place of honorable remembrance for a declared antisemite.”

The event was held days after the Alpine country marked the 87th anniversary of the anti-Jewish “Kristallnacht” pogrom.

The ruling conservative People’s Party (OeVP) insisted the focus should be on “the victims — and not the perpetrators,” while the opposition Greens have called it a “disgrace” that “damages the dignity of the high house.”

The FPOe, founded by former Nazis, dismissed the criticism as a “smear campaign,” saying Dinghofer was a “victim of the Nazi regime.”

The Freedom Party has frequently faced accusations of antisemitism, which it denies.