Luger withdraws nomination for Shoah memorial association

He informed the club’s current board of directors of this on Friday. The Wels FPÖ mayor Andreas Rabl was also represented on the list. The Mauthausen Committee Austria (MKÖ) and the Israelite Community (IKG) recently criticized this heavily.

• Also read: Wels FPÖ mayor Rabl is running for the Jewish memorial association
• Yad Vashem board: “We will not go into a fight vote”

Two groups initially ran for the “Friends of Yad Vashem”, each with six candidates. The second list was more politically occupied, and not only Luger and Rabl wanted to run for it. Three other SPÖ politicians, including the Upper Austrian Third State Parliament President Peter Binder, were also represented there. They justified the decision for a common list by saying that it initially seemed that there were no applications for the board, which would have threatened the association’s dissolution. If it had been known from the start that there was someone who wanted to continue the work, we wouldn’t have started at all.

According to the mayor of Wels, there was a formal error when submitting the list: “Yad Vashem has announced that the memorial must approve all proposals in advance. This did not happen with both lists.” Since the applications would formally go back to the start anyway, the Upper Austrian politicians would no longer run and would give preference to the second list. The withdrawal of the list had nothing to do with the criticism of his person.

Criticism of Rabl

MKÖ and IKG particularly criticized Rabl’s candidacy. It was an “unreasonable expectation” because the FPÖ politician had mocked the Holocaust victims with his candidacy. Those who ran with him lacked “anti-fascist sensitivity.” Most recently, the Yad Vashem memorial itself called on ORF to temporarily suspend the election.

“Our intention was always to sustainably secure the continued existence of the association, which was still at risk at the end of January, by linking democratically legitimized public officials with board positions,” Luger explains the withdrawal in a written statement. “This no longer seems necessary, which is why we can withdraw our offer,” said Luger. “The team around Mayors Luger and Rabl” wishes the club and the new board, probably elected in March, all the best.

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