Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz, the world’s youngest prime minister, faced the first big test of his young government this week when it was revealed that a member of the nationalist Freedom Party FPÖ (who rule in a coalition with Mr Kurz’s Conservative Party - the center-right People's Party ÖVP) was also the vice-chairman of a fraternity singing neo-Nazi songs praising the Austrian past during the second world war.
According to the magazine, one of the songs in the fraternity’s book contains the lyrics: "In their midst comes the Jew Ben-Gurion: 'Step on the gas, you ancient Germanic peoples, we'll manage the seventh million."
The Freedom Party’s Mr Udo Landbauer admits that he was part of the fraternity called "Germania zu Wiener Neustadt", but said he had never heard the songs sung.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">El Gobierno austríaco quiere cerrar una fraternidad ultra por usar canciones nazis <a href="https://t.co/SyOYB1SNPM">https://t.co/SyOYB1SNPM</a> <a href="https://t.co/6Wmp8cOeJM">pic.twitter.com/6Wmp8cOeJM</a></p>— De Todo Un Poco! (@DeTodoUnPoco332) <a href="https://twitter.com/DeTodoUnPoco332/status/958688021104087045?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Given that Mr Kurz’s coaltion was already criticized for its harsh anti-immigrant stance, the young prime minister knew that he couldn’t get caught looking weak and so decided to abolish the organization.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="de" dir="ltr">Der Österreichische Pennäler Ring, dem bis vor Kurzem auch die Germania zu Wiener Neustadt angehörte, wird vom Familienministerium gefördert [premium] <a href="https://t.co/tF71Dqs2wB">https://t.co/tF71Dqs2wB</a></p>— Die Presse (@DiePressecom) <a href="https://twitter.com/DiePressecom/status/956869540239028225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Mr Kurz stated the book was "racist, anti-Semitic and absolutely repugnant," before adding that "there cannot be a place for that in our country."
His office stated that he had instructed the Justice Ministry to launch proceedings to shut the fraternity down.
Source:
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/oesterreich-kurz-will-burschenschaft-germania-aufloesen-1.3848344
