State security required
Concern about “new” and “old” anti-Semitism
The Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN) continues to deal with extremism from a wide variety of areas in Austria: right-wing extremism remains a "major challenge", explained DSN head Omar Haijawi-Pirchner at a press conference on Thursday, but left-wing extremism and Islamist extremism also occupy state security. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) condemned the growing anti-Semitism.
The threat scenario of Islamist extremism has become more intense, especially since the brutal terrorist attack by Hamas on the Israeli population on 7 October, emphasized Karner at the press conference on the 2023 constitutional protection report. In Austria, the threat level is still 4 out of 5.
Anti-Semitism "is becoming more frequent and louder"
The minister is also concerned about both "new" and "old" anti-Semitism. There is still classic right-wing extremist anti-Semitism, but Islamist and left-wing extremist anti-Semitism has become "more frequent" and "louder", explained Karner. All forms of anti-Semitism must be rejected and will be combated by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the police, the Minister emphasized. For example, he recalled the recent eviction of the anti-Semitic protest camp in front of the University of Vienna.
The DSN is also concerned with the "old" and "new" right-wing extremism, including the anti-government scene and the Identitarians. Haijawi-Pirchner is particularly concerned about the widespread possession of weapons in this milieu. In the area of left-wing extremism, the state security service has recorded an increasing number of rallies with open sympathy for the Palestinian side in the Middle East conflict, but the scene also uses the climate issue for its own purposes. Criminal acts in the radical climate protection scene cannot be ruled out, and climate activists are under observation as a "gateway for violent forces".
Counterintelligence with a focus on Russia
According to Karner, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has also fueled espionage and disinformation once again. Russia, Iran and China are the focus of counterintelligence, explained Haijawi-Pirchner. According to the head of the DSN, the report does not address the current espionage case involving the former constitutional protection officer Egisto Ott. He pointed out that the investigations were being conducted by the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Vienna public prosecutor's office, but also emphasized in this context: "It is clearly Russian networks that are behind this."
The report on the protection of the constitution itself was not yet published on Thursday; it is to be published online at the weekend, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
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