Austria Austria to dissolve Nazi songbook fraternity linked to Freedom party Move follows discovery of lyrics mocking Holocaust and celebrating Nazi atrocities The Freedom party leader, Heinz Christian Strache, centre, speaks at an annual ball in Vienna celebrating student fraternities. Photograph: Fayer/handout/EPAAustria is taking steps to dissolve a student fraternity with links to the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ), the junior partner in its governing coalition, after the emergence of a songbook in which the group mocked victims of the Holocaust and celebrated Nazi atrocities. The move to dissolve Germania is symbolically significant because a large number of politicians in the FPÖ, the junior coalition partner to Kurz’s Austrian People’s party since last December, have ties to student fraternities. Heinz-Christian Strache, the Austrian vice-chancellor, on Friday insisted that “antisemitism, totalitarianism [and] racism are the opposite of fraternity thinking”. In spite of the scandal, the FPÖ managed to improve its result at the Lower Austria state elections by six percentage points, coming third behind the centre-right Austrian People’s party and the centre-left Social Democratic party.

Source: The Guardian January 31, 2018 15:08 UTC