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Activists protested today (Fri) in front of the chancellory in Vienna over what they claim are “unusable” new laws for migrants.

Philipp Sonderegger from non-governmental organisation SOS Mitmensch said activists had cut apart chairs in front of the chancellery to make them unusable – just like laws on migrants’ right to remain in Austria which came into force on 1 April.

The platform “Right to Remain” said only 400 people of the thousands who had applied for it had been given permission to remain in Austria on humanitarian grounds since 1 April.

The platform said: “The law has not provided a solution for people who have lived here for a long time without legal permission.”

It added the special advisory council set up by the Interior Ministry had considered only four migrants’ cases because security authorities had the right to pre-screen which ones it would examine.

The platform also criticised People’s Party (ÖVP) Interior Minister Maria Fekter’s plans to deport asylum applicants during ongoing asylum proceedings.

The new law also disqualifies migrants who arrived in Austria after 1 May 2004 from a special right to remain in the country on humanitarian grounds.

Only those who entered Austria before that date, have lived in the country since their arrival and have a quasi-legal claim to residence, are eligible to receive permission to remain on humanitarian grounds.

Such people can apply to the government of the province they are living in for permission to remain on humanitarian grounds. If the provincial government grants it, the case is referred to the Interior Ministry for its approval within two months.

http://www.austriantimes.at/news/General_News/2009-10-09/17117/Activists_protest_over_migrant_laws

Austrian Jewish Community (IKG) leader Ariel Muzicant has warned there are growing similarities between Austria today and Germany just before Hitler came to power.

In an interview in today’s edition of the Vienna newspaper Der Standard, Muzicant criticised both the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the People’s Party (ÖVP) for their alleged refusal to exclude the possibility of a governing coalition with the right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ).

Muzicant said: “The real scandal is that the two big parties always defend themselves by claiming the FPÖ has been democratically elected. Adolf Hitler was also democratically elected. Then the quarrel between the right and the left in Germany led to Hitler becoming chancellor. [But] I do not want to compare FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache with Hitler.”

Muzicant also warned of the danger of trying to isolate the FPÖ, which would only strengthen its “martyr’s role”, which he said former SPÖ Chancellor Franz Vranitzky had understood. What was important was “to talk with the FPÖ to show people it was not concerned with jobs and social welfare but about hatred and rabble-rousing.”

The Jewish leader’s remarks may have come partially in response to a recent controversy after Vorarlberg FPÖ leader Dieter Egger called Hanno Loewy, the head of the Jewish museum in Hohenems, as “an exile Jew from America.”

Strache defended Egger over what has been called by mane an anti-Semitic statement. Strache said on the “Sommergespräche” (Summer Talks) debate show on national broadcaster ORF earlier this week he did not regard “exile Jew” as a swear word or an insult.

Vorarlberg Governor Herbert Sausgruber warned he would not consider a coalition of his People’s Party (ÖVP) and the FPÖ after the 20 September provincial election if Egger did not apologise.

Strache claimed Sausgruber’s reaction was “exaggerated”, explaining: “Egger wanted to stress that the FPÖ did not accept that permanent kind of criticism of our poster campaign and other things by citizens of other countries.”

The federal FPÖ leader added there would be no consequences for Egger, stressing his party would not allow the ÖVP to give them advice on how to manage their human resources. “(Former SPÖ Chancellor Bruno) Kreisky was also an exile Jew and a great patriot,” he added.

Strache said: “We are a democratic party that disassociates itself from all forms of extremism, regardless of whether it comes from the left or the right side of the political spectrum.”

The public prosecutor’s office in Feldkirch, Vorarlberg, meanwhile, has announced they will check statements made by Egger to find out whether legal action should be taken.

Head prosecutor Franz Pflanzner said: “There is a possibility the statements could lead to consequences under sedition paragraph number 238 because of wide media coverage.”

Loewy said he would “rather not” press for legal action over the statement. Loewy said: “What Egger said is not insulting, just wrong.”

Egger reacted with newspaper ads in which he called for financial subsidies for Austrian families in the province.

The discussion is only one of several regarding actions by the right-wing party or statements by its members this year. A few months ago, FPÖ MP and Third President of Parliament Martin Graf came under fire for accusing Muzicant of being the “godfather of anti-fascist, left-wing terrorism in Austria.”

http://www.austriantimes.at/news/General_News/2009-08-28/15998/Jewish_leader_warns_of_similarities_to_time_of_Hitler%27s_rise

Viennese school authorities are checking Muslim teachers’ German following a scandal over a Muslim teacher who handed out anti-Semitic leaflets to students.

The checks are part of a recently introduced five-point plan by Social Democrat (SPÖ) Education Minister Claudia Schmied checking teaching standards, including a directive that all Muslim teachers have to be fluent German speakers.

Vienna’s Stadtschulrat city school council said today (Weds) small language deficits were found in the checks of the capital’s 169 Islamic teachers conducted over the last few days.

Vienna authorities had a close look at eleven teachers who do not hold a German degree. Three of them were ordered to sit additional German classes while the others proved to have excellent German, it was announced.

The five-point plan was introduced after Education Minister Schmied banned a Muslim man in February from teaching his religion at a Vienna secondary school after he distributed anti-Semitic leaflets to pupils.

Schmied ordered the city’s school authorities to take action against the man who had been teaching at the Cooperative Secondary School (KMS) in Brüßlgasse in the district of Ottakring.

He reportedly distributed anti-Semitic leaflets to his students. The flyers contained a list of allegedly “Jewish” firms from which, the man told the students, they should not buy anything.

http://austriantimes.at/index.php?id=12919

The forensic expert who carried out the autopsy of former BZÖ leader Jörg Haider’s body has tried to silence conspiracy theories about his death and said he was definitely drunk when he died.

Kathrin Yen has insisted Haider was drunk at the time he died – despite new video evidence that apparently shows him sober just minutes before he got into the car that later crashed.

An interview Haider gave to a private TV station shows him articulate and able to give clear answers to a reporter’s questions.

Haider shows no sign of the effects of a bottle of vodka he is supposed to have downed that left him four times over the Austrian alcohol limit for driving.

The interview was recorded at 11.15pm on the night of the crash in a local club but was screened only briefly on the TV station’s website before it was withdrawn without explanation.

The reporter who conducted the interview said: “I’m convinced he was not drunk.”

But pathologist Kathrin Yen, 40, insists that, although she found no drugs or poison in his blood, there was definitely alcohol in it.

But she admits she’s baffled by how he could have gotten so drunk so quickly.

“I don’t know – all I know is the alcohol was there. Finding out how it got there is not part of my job,” she said.

But yesterday (Thurs), the respected Austrian daily newspaper “Kurier” claimed that Haider was apparently sending text messages just before he crashed.

The newspaper says Haider sent one at 1.12am and received a reply two minutes later – just four minutes before the crash.

And another Austrian newspaper, Vienna’s free daily “Heute”, reports a conspiracy theory website has started gathering evidence that Haider’s accident was not what it seemed.

On http://info.kopp-verlag.de/news/fall-haider-autowrack-ist-eine-botschaft.html, questions are asked about why the roof of Haider’s car was not more badly damaged, since the car was supposed to have rolled over four times, and why there were no fragments of glass or other vegetation on the car, even though it was supposed to have smashed through hedges and bushes.

http://www.austriantimes.at/index.php?id=9397

VIENNA (Reuters) – A surge in support for the far right poses a dilemma for Austria’s main parties — how to form a government without repeating an unpopular centrist coalition which drove voters toward the far right in the first place.

The two centrist parties plummeted to their worst results since World War Two in Sunday’s poll, hit by voter frustration over their government squabbles and concern at a looming economic downturn, inflation and immigration.

The far right Freedom Party and splinter Alliance for Austria’s Future, led by former Freedom leader Joerg Haider, mopped up nearly a third of votes between them.

“Voters were clearly motivated by disgruntlement with the government due to their lengthy disputes,” political commentator Peter Filzmaier told Austrian radio.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE48S5D520080929?sp=true