What did the FPÖ man know?

“Lied!”: Rosenkranz defends Remembrance Day fiasco

Walter Rosenkranz is the first Freedom Party President of the National Council in Austria's history.

(Bild: APA/EVA MANHART)

The conflict between National Council President Walter Rosenkranz (FPÖ) and the Jewish community has gained another chapter. The Freedom Party leader added to the dispute over a failed wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate the November pogroms - and became entangled in contradictions.

But let's start at the beginning: In his role as President of the National Council, Rosenkranz wanted to commemorate the victims of the November pogroms on Judenplatz in Vienna on November 8. But he failed with a crash!

A human chain of the Jewish student body prevented the politician from reaching the Shoah memorial. Rosenkranz turned up at Judenplatz even though he was explicitly not invited to the commemorative event organized by the Jewish Community (IKG) - and apparently knew that a protest was forming.

What did Rosenkranz know?
Rosenkranz believes that what political observers interpreted as a deliberate provocation was completely exaggerated. "All false" were the accounts that he had wanted to lay an FPÖ wreath with an FPÖ delegation. The portrayal that he had deliberately sought a fight was also a "lie", scolded Rosenkranz in an interview with the radio station Ö1 on Saturday.

Video footage of the incident described:

Only to confirm in the same interview that he was well aware of the protest against his person on Judenplatz. However, he had received this information "at very short notice". The intensity of the resistance only became apparent on site. Video recordings of the incident clearly showed him accusing the peacefully demonstrating Jews of violence. According to Rosenkranz, however, he had deliberately tried not to let the situation escalate: "What kind of photo do you think it would have made if Jews had been prevented from commemorating the pogroms by police violence in the presence of a Freedom Party National Council President?"

At no time would he have issued an evacuation order. Rosenkranz acknowledged that he was a person who met with resistance in "certain Jewish circles". He wanted to send a signal: "That the Austrian parliament, which is not just anyone in this republic represented by me, should also hold a commemoration for these atrocities that were committed back then."

Rosenkranz does not want to apologize
He does not want to comply with the request of his predecessor in office, Wolfgang Sobotka, to apologize. During the 2022 presidential election campaign, it became known that Rosenkranz, then a candidate, had praised an illegal Nazi accused of dozens of murders as an "achiever" in a book published by his German nationalist fraternity.

He certainly finds a "mistake" in this, but it would not be enough for more: "I didn't say the word apology, I would see it differently." After all, the Nazi was never convicted for the murder of 44 prisoners. That he was indeed convicted for his illegal NSDAP membership, "I now know". Rosenkranz accuses Sobotka of a "small flight forward" because he wants to come to terms with his era "also legally".

"Anyone who honors Nazis is worth nothing," chanted Jewish students.

(Bild: EVA MANHART)

Dispute over the chairmanship of the National Fund
He also wishes to retain the chairmanship of the National Fund for Victims of National Socialism despite harsh criticism. The IKG had announced that it would not take part in meetings that Rosenkranz also attended. However, this was beyond his control, Rosenkranz continued on Ö1-Journal. "By law, I am the chairman of the Board of Trustees", and he could not be represented there.

Whether Rosenkranz can be represented was a topic of the first presidential meeting of this legislative period. He instructed the Legislative Service to clarify this. Because "without an amendment to the law, I will comply with the law", said Rosenkranz. The Third President of the National Council, Doris Bures (SPÖ), found that he could in principle be represented. "That is possible," replied Rosenkranz.