The Austrian parliament elected an extreme right-wing figure as its first president for the first time, amid the Jewish community's anger over the appointment of a man who “praises Nazi criminals.”
President Wolfgang Sobotka announced after the vote in Vienna that Walter Rosenkranz (62 years old) received 100 votes out of 162 votes.
This choice comes in the wake of the historic victory achieved by the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) in the parliamentary elections that took place at the end of September.
The far-right Freedom Party won the elections for the first time last month, receiving nearly a third of the votes, but failed to find partners to form the government. However, as the stronger party, it appointed lawmaker Walter Rosenkranz, 62, a lawyer and former presidential candidate, as speaker of parliament. Rosenkranz, who was widely criticized for being a member of a far-right student group known for its extreme nationalism, was elected by secret ballot. In a discussion before the vote, conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer said his party was “committed to respecting the customs and traditions” of parliament. Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl praised Rosenkranz “for his loyalty to democracy, the Constitution and the rule of law.” Before the vote, Oskar Deutsch, head of the IKG which represents Vienna's Jewish community, expressed his indignation in an open letter to members of parliament, describing Rosenkranz as someone from the “revisionist camp”, who “makes a real tribute to the Jewish party in Vienna.” Nazi criminals.”
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