Austrian political row

It's supporters have been filmed giving Hitler salutes at rallies for the European Parliamentary elections and its advertising campaign has been criticised as anti-Islam and anti-Semitic. Austria's far-right Freedom Party has plunged Austrian politics into an uproar.

One Freedom Party campaing poster reads "Abendland in Christenhand" -- or Europe in Christian hands -- the implication being that the EU has allowed too many Muslims to enter Europe. Another Freedom Party election ad in a tabloid newspaper promises to veto the EU membership of Israel and Turkey to avoid getting sucked into what is described as "the bloody Middle East crisis."

That's been interpreted by some as anti-Semitic as well as anti-Islam. Israel is not a candidate to become an EU member.

Austrian President Heinz Fischer responded by saying that religion and politics should not mix, though popular sentiment is that he waited too long to get involved.

Public outcry

Senior figures in the Catholic Church and the Muslim community are also outraged. Catholic theologian and author Hubert Feichtelbauer fears that Freedom Party leader Heinz Christian Strache may be tapping into religious prejudices.

"In their hearts they didn't feel very upset about this," Feichtelbauer said of those who are not outraged by the campaign tactics. "Therefore I fear that in a minority of the Catholic population there might be some agreement with the slogans put forward by Mr. Strache."

The Freedom Party rejects all criticism of its campaigning as absurd and irrelevant and says it's sticking with the slogans. The latest statements from a Freedom Party politician are once again stirring up controversy. In a reight-wing publication, Martin Graf, one of the presidents of the lower house of the Austrian Parliament, wrote of Ariel Muzicant, the head of Vienna's Jewish community, "Many are asking if Muzicant is not the father of anti-Fascist left wing terrorism."

"This is to be condemned"

In the middle of an election campaign, statements like that have been taken by all but the right wing as a clear provocation and an attempt to whip up anti-Semitic feeling. The Social Democrat Chancellor Werner Faymann was one of the first to react.

"If this is true, then he is completely off the rails and is to be condemned," Faymann said. "This is incitement and preaching hate and we want nothing to do with hate campaigns."

The chancellor later joined a growing chorus of leading politicians and public figures calling for the Freedom Party politician to resign. But there no sign of that happening, and the Freedom Party has claimed that it is Graf who has been victimized.

Kerry Skyring / sjt
Editor: Trinity Hartman