Austria quashes ‘passports for
AUSTRIA’S GOVERNING parties have voted down two bills brought by the opposition in parliament that would have granted children and grandchildren of victims of Nazi the chance to obtain Austrian citizenship.
At present, only former Austrians forced to leave before the end of the Second World War because of
Nazi persecution or for supporting the democratic Republic of Austria can reclaim stolen citizenship.
But in an exclusive interview with the JC last November, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said he wanted to amend this to “give all children and grandchildren of Holocaust victims the opportunity to become Austrian citizens if they want to.”
Yet parliamentarians from both Mr Kurz’s People’s Party and the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) voted in committee last Thursday to defer bills brought by the Social Democratic Party and the liberal faction Neos that would have enacted the unprecedented change to Austrian nationality law. Both bills would have made it easier for secondand third-generation Holocaust survivors to obtain an Austrian passport by removing existing residence requirements and the need to renounce one’s existing citizenship. Before the vote, SPÖ leader Pamela Ren-
Victims must become Austrians if they want