Johannes Hübner, who was the foreign affairs spokesman for the Austrian Freedom Party (AFP) until 2017, has just been appointed to the Bundesrat, the equivalent to the Austrian Senate, the European Jewish Congress (EJC) reported on Wednesday.
In 2017, Hübner had initiated a run for the Austrian parliament.
He stopped when he was recorded at a far-right event making antisemitic comments.
During the event, Hübner referred to the creator of the Austrian constitution as a 'Kohn,' a word which had been used by Nazis during the 1930s to discredit a constitutional scholar of Jewish descent.Likewise, Hübner also claimed that former-Austrian Federal Chancellor Christian Kern, who was awarded the Friedrich-Torberg awardee of the Jewish Community Vienna, has contacts with the 'Freemasons,' a common antisemitic conspiracy theory.At the same event, Hübner asserted that the Austrian newspaper always mentions the AFP in the context of National Socialism, citing a 'so-called Holocaust survivor.'
The EJC, in a press release, wrote it was "outrage[d]" at Hübner's appointment. “The Freedom Party have claimed that they have left their antisemitic past behind them and have recently tried to revive their reputation, but this appointment represents a huge step backwards,” said Dr. Kantor, EJC's president.
“It is unconscionable that a renowned antisemite would be given such a respectable position," he added.
"We call on the Freedom Party to rescind this decision and to once again turn away from its sordid antisemitic past,” Kantor concluded.
Oskar Deutsch, President of the Jewish community of Vienna (IKG), added “the political return of Mr. Hübner is a confirmation of the lack of credibility of the Freedom Party. This is exactly what happened with Udo Landbauer, who resigned after his student fraternity’s Nazi song books were seized, and then came back as a regional party leader."
Cody Levine contributed to this report.