Austria heading for stormy Kristallnacht ceremony with new parliament president - analysis

VIENNA— A new political precedent was added to the history of post-WWII Austria: for the first time, a candidate representing the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), Walter Rosenkranz, was elected president of the newly elected Nationalrat (National Council) of the Austrian Parliament.

Out of the 183 members of Parliament, 100 voted for Rosenkranz’s candidacy. His party, which won the last general election on September 29, has only 57 seats.

In a secret ballot, Rosenkranz received votes from MPs belonging to parties that a few days before his election rejected forming a government with the FPÖ under its current leader, Herbert Kickl, considered by them a “threat to democracy and rule of law.”

Rosenkranz, until recently the public prosecutor, has thus become the No. 2 authority in Austria after the president.

However, Rosenkranz’s career has not been free of controversy, relating mainly to his membership in a nationalist student fraternity – Libertas – and alleged contacts with extreme-right-wing bodies and activists.

Rosenkranz, 62, was criticized in the past for writing a text to a festive brochure of his fraternity in which he hailed old Nazi members of the group as “top performers.”

One of them was the jurist Johann Stich, who joined the Austrian Nazi Party in 1930 and, after the annexation of Austria to the Third Reich (Anschluss), became attorney-general in Vienna.

Rosenkranz has since admitted regret over writing the text and stated that he wouldn’t have written it today. At the same time, he declared that he wished Austrian public opinion to be more informed about the history of student fraternities and their contribution to democracy and freedom.

These student fraternities (Burschenschaften) appeared in Germany and Austria in the second half of the 19th century, in light of the oppression caused by the anti-monarchist and nationalist revolutions of 1848.

These fraternities supported the idea of Greater Germany and often became later antisemitic.

Libertas, founded in 1860 under the slogan “Freedom, Honor, Fatherland,” was dissolved by the Nazis after the Anschluss despite its German nationalistic character. It resumed its activities after WWII.

Rosenkranz’s election as president of the Austrian Parliament is considered by the heads of the local Jewish community of around 8,000 members as a “threat to the continuation of Jewish life” in the country.

In his first speech after having been elected, Rosenkranz stretched his hand out for a dialogue with the Jewish community. 

But he emphasized that “if parts of the Jewish community in Vienna and Austria will refuse to have any dialogue with me, as they have done so far, in such a way that the Jewish life will refuse to be present in parliamentary events against violence and racism, in commemorating the victims of the Nazis or the commemoration of the Pogrom Night of 1938 [Kristallnacht], I will not let my presence disturb holding such events.”

Rosenkranz to be present at events

Rosenkranz added that he will be replaced in such events by one of his two vice presidents from the conservative party ÖVP and the Social Democratic Party.

However, he made it clear that he will participate in the commemorative event of Kristallnacht on November 9, which will take place at the Holocaust memorial “Wall of Names” in Vienna, in which all the names of the 65,000 Austrian Jews exterminated by the Nazis are engraved.

The decision to build the memorial was made in 2018 by the then-conservative-led government of Sebastian Kurz, in which the FPÖ was a coalition partner.

The FPÖ supported the initiative and approved its financing. The memorial was inaugurated in 2021, and on each remembrance day of Kristallnacht, three Austrian heads of state – the president, the president of Parliament, and the chancellor – participate in an official commemoration event there.

Rosenkranz said he intends to be present at the event to lay down an official wreath in the name of the Parliament. However, some Jewish representatives have already announced that they will boycott the event due to Rosenkranz’s presence.

Rosenkranz reacted by saying, “I can only offer the Jews a dialogue. I can’t force it upon them to come to events in which I had participated as a member of Parliament and public prosecutor; I will go on trying to have a dialogue.

“After my speech at the Parliament, many people told me they wanted to help and open doors. A friendship must not be created from one day to another, but I am willing to contribute to it. Jews in Austria should absolutely not fear me.”