"About 200 protesters demonstrated in front of the parliament building in Austria's capital Vienna on Tuesday evening. They were rallying against an event called the Dinghofer Symposium that they say is antisemitic. Parliamentary speaker Walter Rosenkranz, who hosted the event, had attracted massive criticism in the past weeks for going ahead with the symposium despite calls to cancel it. Some protesters held up placards that read "No place for antisemitism" or "Shame.""
"The Dinghofer Symposium is named after Franz Dinghofer, who was Austria's vice chancellor in the 1920s. Dinghofer was a self-proclaimed "radical antisemite" and a pan-German nationalist who became a member of the Nazi party during World War II. FPO representatives counter that they remember Dinghofer as a statesman of the period between World War I and World War II. The event, which has been held in parliament in the past, drew criticism from Austria's Jewish community and major political parties, including the ruling three-party coalition. Last week, more than a dozen historians said parliament was being made "the place of honorable remembrance for a declared antisemite"."
""Dinghofer was an antisemite and a Nazi party member during World War II," said Lia Guttmann, co-president of the Austrian Union of Jewish Students group. Guttmann said the protesters were holding a "counter-symposium" outside parliament against what she called "historical amnesia.""
"Event hosted by far-right parliamentary speaker Walter Rosenkranz is a senior member of Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPO). He was elected president of the National Council, Austria's lower house of parliament, last year after the FPO topped legislative elections. He has also faced widespread criticism for his membership of Vienna's Libertas student fratern"
About 200 protesters gathered outside Austria's parliament in Vienna to oppose the Dinghofer Symposium, holding placards reading "No place for antisemitism" and "Shame." Protesters organized a counter-symposium and described Franz Dinghofer as an antisemite and a Nazi party member. Franz Dinghofer served as vice chancellor in the 1920s, identified as a radical antisemite and pan-German nationalist, and joined the Nazi party during World War II. FPO figures defend his legacy as a statesman, while Austria's Jewish community, major political parties and historians criticized the event being held in parliament. The symposium was hosted by parliamentary speaker Walter Rosenkranz, a senior FPO member who has faced controversy.
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