“Austria’s history is marked by anti-Semitism, dictatorship and National Socialism. From Lueger, who served Hitler as an idol, to Dollfuss, who paved the way for the dictatorship, to Waldheim, who kept his SA past secret. We had hoped that the continuity of anti-Semitic politics in the moderate Austrian parties would come to an end.
Against the background of the welcome ‘National Action Plan against Anti-Semitism’, we are shocked and concerned about the appointment of Gerhard Karner as Minister of the Interior, who used anti-Semitic rhetoric in his state election campaign and does not want to distance himself from it. According to Karner, the SPNÖ had worked with ‘gentlemen from America and Israel against the country’, they were ‘climate poisoners’. The anti-Semitic dimension of this statement is obvious, because on the one hand it expresses the idea of the ‘Jewish world conspiracy’ and on the other hand it makes use of the centuries-old legend of the ‘Jewish well poisoner’.
We are convinced that this person is completely unsuitable for the office of Minister of the Interior and call on the federal government to place our security in the hands of moderate politics.
We are therefore calling for this important office to be replaced.
