(JTA) — An Austrian lawmaker has been fired after enthusiastically agreeing with an anti-Semitic post on her Facebook page.
The far-right Freedom Party expelled Susanne Winter on Monday evening. The party had first offered Winter the chance to resign.
“Given that up to this point in time no announcement has been made as to the resignation of Susanne Winter, she is hereby excluded from the Austrian Freedom Party with immediate effect. In addition, the FPO continues to call for her to give up her mandate (seat in parliament),” the party said in a statement.
Winter on Friday responded to an anti-Semitic post by a citizen named Oehlmann Hans-Jörg in which he said that “Zionist money Jews are the global problem. Europe, and in particular Germany, are now getting what they deserve from Zionist Jews, particularly rich Zionist Jews in the USA, for the century-long persecution of Jews in Europe. According to the Zionists, Europe, particularly Germany, should be cut off as economic competitors to the U.S.”
Winter responded: “It is great. You are taking the words right out of my mouth. There are a lot of things I am not allowed to write. Therefore I’m even more pleased about courageous, independent people.”
She later walked back her response, telling the Austrian edition of the Der Standard newspaper on Sunday that she was sorry for the post, which she called “foolish.”
“I am not anti-Semitic, I have Jewish friends,” she told the newspaper.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
