Austria warns of the increase in anti-Semitic incidents in marches against the measures against the coronavirus

VIENNA, Jan. 31 (DPA/EP) –

The Austrian authorities have reported an increase in anti-Semitic incidents at demonstrations protesting the measures imposed in the country to deal with the coronavirus.

The Austrian Constitution Minister, Karoline Edtstadler, has highlighted in a press conference the increase in this type of incident, while the protesters have used symbols and slogans that equate the policies against COVID-19 with the Nazi persecution of the Jews.

In this context, the Jewish community has announced that, in a few weeks, it will publish a report detailing the number of anti-Semitic incidents recorded in Austria over the past year.

“Due to the coronavirus demonstrations, the numbers will be incredibly high, numbers that are difficult to live with,” said the president of the Vienna Jewish Community, Oskar Deutsch.

In the first half of last year, a total of 526 incidents of this type were reported, an amount almost similar to that recorded throughout all of 2020.

In addition, Deutsch has criticized the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) for not distancing itself from revisionist discourses on the origin of Nazism.

The leader of the FPO, Herbert Kickl, declared at the end of December that, at its origin, Nazism also spread thanks to the exclusion of people, trying to create a link between those policies and current measures against the coronavirus.