Kurier, July 19,2017
German Original: https://kurier.at/politik/inland/kern-verurteilt-aussagen-von-fpoe-nationalrat-huebner/276.024.437
The federal chancellor called the anti-Semitic allusions by the FPÖ representative “absolutely unacceptable.” The social democratic values compass does not have to be consulted much for an evaluation.
The federal chancellor and head of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), Christian Kern, has condemned the statements made by Member of Parliament Johannes Hübner (FPÖ, Austrian Freedom Party). “This mixture of anti-Semitism and a persecution complex is absolutely absurd and unacceptable. In order to evaluate this behavior, one does not have to consult our values compass for long,” Kern posted on Facebook on Wednesday evening.
Before that, it became know that Hübner made likely anti-Semitic remarks during a speech at the congress of the right-wing Society for Free Journalism (Gesellschaft für freie Publizistik). Hübner himself has rejected allegations of anti-Semitism.
The SPÖ under Kern has recently agreed to a criteria catalogue including a so-called value compass, which marked a departure of the party’s strict rejection of the FPÖ.
Kelsen mocked
During his speech in Thuringia Hübner called Hans Kelsen, the preeminent mind behind the Austrian constitution, “Hans Kohn.” The bonmot, which was apparently met with laughter at the event, has been used by far-right circles for decades to mock Kelsen and is designed to hint at Kelsen’s Jewish background. This side bow does not make a lot of sense in any other way, since Kelsen was never named Kohn in reality.
Kern’s loge contacts
In addition, Hübner deemed newsworthy that Kern is a “Friedrich Torberg awardee of the Jewish Community Vienna (IKG)” and an “excellently networked member of the loge.” This, too was answered by Kern in his post: “Yes, I am very proud that the Jewish Community bestowed the Friedrich-Torberg-Medal on me." Kern did not reference the term “member of the loge” to the Freemasons and permitted himself a joke: he is equally proud of his “loge contacts in our theaters and opera houses.”