Dominant Austrian Party Dissociates Itself from Religious Bias

The Austrian Peoples Party, which last month won an absolute majority in Parliamentary elections, announced at a meeting here today that the party dissociates itself “unconditionally” from any attempts to inject racial or religious issues into Austrian politics. During the meeting, Alois Scheibenreif, a Peoples Party deputy, withdrew “with regrets” the anti-Semitic insults he had directed during the election campaign at Foreign Minister Bruno Kreisky, who is Jewish.

Meanwhile, Ernst Feldsberg, president of the Austrian Jewish community, called the attention of Vienna Mayor Marek to recent signs of a new revival of anti-Semitism here. Mayor Marek pledged that the Vienna community will fight every new manifestation of anti-Semitism.