‘Nazi’ chemist expelled over Hitler plaque

AUSTRIA’S far- right Freedom Party has expelled a local official for hoarding Nazi memorabilia, less than three weeks before national elections.

A local activist said Martin Hochstöger had hung a plaque commemorating Hitler’s 1938 annexation of Austria in a back room of his pharmacy in Landeck, Tyrol.

Pics on the activist’s blog also showed the ex- president of the local pharmacists’ association displayed pieces of cloth with insignia, including the SS Death’s Head and the Nazi eagle, in a glass cabinet.

Markus Abzwerger, head of the FPÖ in Tyrol, announced on Facebook that Hochstöger has been expelled from the party, saying that a “red line had clearly been crossed”.

The anti- immigration FPO, a party founded by ex- Nazis after World War II and formerly headed by Jörg Haider, has long sought to clean up its image.

But last month the Mauthausen Committee, a group commemorating concentration camp victims, published a list of 60 anti- Semitic incidents involving FPO figures since 2013.