Austrian minister quits over fraternity’s antisemitic texts

An Austrian cabinet minister from the farright Freedom Party resigned following the discovery of antisemitic literature at his old university fraternity.

Udo Landbauer, who was 11 when offensive poems about Jews were included in a songbook of the Germania zu Wiener Neustadt fraternity, said on Thursday he would leave politics.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz last week called for punishing with “the full severity of the law” the authors of an antisemitic poem that appeared in the songbook.

The poem, which was printed in 1997, read: “In their midst comes the Jew Ben-Gurion: ‘Step on the gas, you ancient Germanic peoples, we’ll manage the seventh million.”

Kurz spoke out about the booklet on Wednesday in a statement following a report earlier in the week on it by the Austrian Falter weekly magazine. Racist hate speech is illegal in Austria. The Germania zu Wiener Neustadt fraternity said the person who was responsible for the poem has been identified and excluded for any membership in the organization.

Austrian officials have said they are looking into disbanding and outlawing the fraternity.

The Freedom Party was founded by a former Nazi officer, but has long fought accusations of tolerating antisemitism in its ranks. It entered the government in December after elections in October. (JTA)