Austrian Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky said last night he would rather resign than reconsider his decision to close the Jewish transit camp at Schoenau Castle. Political sources, however, called Kreisky’s statement “mere rhetoric” today.
Denouncing the sit-in demonstration by members of the Jewish Defense League at the Austrian Consulate General in New York on Tuesday as “Jewish counter-terrorism,” Kreisky told a delegation of Austrian Jewish leaders: “I would rather resign than cancel my decision, no matter who demands it, from the President of the United States on down.” President Richard Nixon said yesterday he hoped Kreisky would reconsider the decision to close Schoenau.
A political source close to the opposition Conservative Peoples Party, claimed that “Kreisky would not resign, because he fears a political set-back for his Socialist Party in the forthcoming elections in Vienna and upper Austria; His statement is mere rhetoric.”
Some three million Austrians are scheduled to vote for a new town council in Vienna and a new provincial diet in upper Austria Oct. 26. The Socialists had a solid two-thirds majority in Vienna and hoped to gain a slight majority in upper Austria, where the two big parties got 26 seats-each in the provincial diet at the last elections. Although leaders of all Austrian parties vowed to keep the Schoenau decision out of the election campaign. Kreisky’s resignation could lead to a bigger set-back for the Socialists than the decision itself, political sources here said.
SADAT APPRECIATES KREISKY’S DECISION
Kreisky addressed his “rather resign” remarks to 10 Jewish leaders after a meeting with Ismail Fahmi, Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and former. Ambassador to Austria, who came to Vienna with a written message from Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat. Sadat expressed “satisfaction and appreciation” for the Austrian decision to close Schoenau, Fabmi told journalists after his two-hour meeting with Kreisky.
One official source said Jewish-born Kreisky was “not too glad to receive that wave of sympathy from Arab countries,” because this made it even harder to explain the motives of the Austrian decision to the rest of the world. Some 400 Jews demonstrated while Kreisky met with Fahmi.
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