Politician with history of controversial comments nominated to Austrian Senate
A politician with a history of controversial comments has reportedly been nominated to join the Austrian Senate.
Johannes Hübner served as the Foreign Affairs Spokesman for the Austrian Freedom Party (AFP) until 2017 when he launched a campaign for a seat in the Austrian Parliament. The campaign was subsequently discontinued following released recordings of him at a far-right event making controversial comments.
During the event in question, Mr Hübner referred to the drafter of the Austrian constitution as a ‘Kohn’, a common phrase used by the Nazis throughout the 1930s to discredit and undermine constitutional scholars of Jewish descent. He also claimed that former Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, who received a major award from the Jewish community, has associations with freemasonry, which is a popular antisemitic motif.
Mr Hübner further asserted that the Austrian newspapers always mention the AFP in the context of National Socialism on the basis of claims by a “so-called Holocaust survivor.”
Several calls have been made for the Freedom Party to rescind the decision to appoint Mr Hübner in such a respectable position.
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