Austrian parliament elects first far-right speaker over left's objections

VIENNA (Reuters) – Austria’s lower house of parliament on Thursday elected its first ever far-right speaker after his Freedom Party won last month’s parliamentary election and many conservatives backed him over the objections of the left and the Jewish community.

Walter Rosenkranz, a 62-year-old lawyer and veteran lawmaker for the eurosceptic, Russia-friendly Freedom Party (FPO), had recently served as Austria’s parliament-appointed ombudsman. His supporters say his decades of public service qualify him for the country’s second-highest office.

His critics point to his membership of a far-right fraternity and his praise for a prominent Nazi, arguing such a senior office requires a more statesmanlike figure.

“It is still difficult for me to realise that you have thus added me to a long line of historic figures of this country,” Rosenkranz said in a speech after 100 of the chamber’s 183 lawmakers voted for him in by secret ballot.

The speaker has a strong influence on parliamentary business, from when sessions are held to allowing or preventing lawmakers from taking the floor. Rosenkranz said he would not abuse that power.

The leadership of the conservative People’s Party (OVP) said it supported him. Together the FPO and OVP have a majority of seats but there was no party whip on the vote.

The OVP is starting coalition talks with the Social Democrats on Friday.

“Walter Rosenkranz is not fit to serve in this office. Such a person has no place at the head of the lower house,” Sigrid Maurer of the left-wing Greens, the party most vocal in opposing Rosenkranz, said in the last speech before the vote.

Rosenkranz wrote a contribution for a book about members of right-wing fraternities like his who had made significant contributions to Austria. One of those he mentioned was Johann Stich, who as chief prosecutor in Vienna under the Nazis was responsible for the execution of dozens of resistance members.

Asked about that on Puls 24 TV two years ago, he said he was referring to Stich’s public service as a prosecutor before Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, and that he did not know Stich became a member of the Nazi party years before annexation.

Oskar Deutsch, the president of the Jewish Religious Community (IKG), the organisation that officially represents Austria’s Jews, has called Rosenkranz “a brown wolf in blue clothing” – a reference to the colours associated with the Nazis and the FPO – and urged lawmakers not to vote for him.

Should members of the Jewish community want to boycott commemorative events in parliament because he was invited, Rosenkranz said he would make way so they could attend.

“There will definitely be a solution with my deputies (from other parties)”, he said, pledging to continue to work against anti-Semitism.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy, Editing by Nick Zieminski)