We want to support our member union JÖH in condemning FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria) for its antisemitic, xenophobic, racist stance. As JÖH have stated clearly:
“The second round of the Austrian presidential election (German: Bundespräsidentenwahl) is going to be held on this Sunday (22.5).
There is a potentially high danger, that Norbert Hofer of the FPÖ will win the election. The FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria) is a far-right populist political party in Austria, which openly campaigns for anti-immigration and anti-EU policies. Many of the FPÖ’s politicians (even the presidential candidate) have a history of antisemitic statements and they yearly attend the highly controversial Burschenschafterball, which is attended by many of Austria’s and Germany’s openly anti-semitic fuglemen. The FPÖ pharisaically denies all these accusations of antisemitism. Actually at the moment Jews are not in the focus of the FPÖ; today the anti-Islam and above all: the xenophobic rhetoric is what is heavily characterizing the party.”
A vote against FPÖ is a vote against the very ideologies the EU was built to fight against. We were given these tools from former generations of activists, politicians and citizens who stood up against inequality, discrimination, racism and their advocators: let’s use them now!
Let’s reclaim our right to be represented by people who have the interests of the entirety of their country’s citizens at heart.
Let’s support and empower leaders who don’t see differences and minorities as a problem or liability, but as a resource.
We also join them in asking everyone to help “to ensure the future of the next generations of Jewish students:
• if you hold the Austrian citizenship please go to the polls and vote against Norbert Hofer
• if you don’t have the Austrian citizenship, please talk to your friends and acquaintances and explain them why it is important to vote this time.”
Go vote and make others vote. Our democracy, our freedom and our European values are at stake.
EUJS Board
