Victims’ law

di-Wagner criticised the government for not bringing about these changes sooner, arguing an important opportunity had been missed during the memorial year of 2018 — marking 80 years since the Anschluss and Kristallnacht — to “send an important signal.”

She called the committee vote a “litmus test” by which the government’s desire to “eliminate injustice” could be judged.

After the government deferred her bill, Neos home affairs spokesperson Stephanie Krisper described the move as “a slap in the face and show of disrespect towards the victims of National Socialism and their descendants.”

Despite the move by coalition MPs, the Austrian government said that extending the right to obtain Austrian passport to second- and third-generation Holocaust survivors nonetheless remained its policy.

The opposition’s bills prompted FPÖ Interior Minister Herbert Kickl to announce they would bring forward their own draft legislation on the matter, although this may not before the end of 2019.