In Austria, elections will be held on Sunday, in which, according to forecasts, the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) may receive the largest number of votes. Certainly it is not at all possible for the election to be scheduled independently one day before the vote Standard published an article reporting that some high-ranking FPÖ politicians attended a funeral in Vienna on Friday, where an old SS hymn was also sung in memory of the deceased.
The newspaper also published a video of the funeral. Based on the recordings, the funeral was attended by FPÖ National Council members Harald Stefan and Martin Graf, and faction leader Norbert Nemeth. They are all running in FPÖ colors in Sunday's elections: Stefan is in first place on the FPÖ's provincial list in Vienna, Graf is in third place, and Nemeth is in ninth place on the federal list. Apart from them, Johann Godinus, the former faction leader of the Austrian Freedom Party, also appeared at the funeral. There were also members of the far-right Identity movement linked to the Freedom Party of Austria.
At the funeral, the “grand old man” of the party, Walter Sucher, was bid farewell. Socher was an FPÖ representative 40 years ago, and is also a member of a German nationalist student organization affiliated with the far-right wing of the FPÖ. In 2006, Socher caused a stir when he said at a conference of the Austrian Freedom Party: “I greet you all with a sincere greeting!”
Naturally, everyone remembers the Nazi salute, but he reassured the audience that this “is really our old salute.” Sucher, who was 72 at the time, also spoke of his belief that the SS anthem that begins with “Wenn alle untreu werden” should still be sung today (the first two lines of the song say that if they all became disloyal, We will continue to sing (remain faithful).
This happened during his funeral in Vienna on Friday, and the Nazi song “Loyalty” was also sung at Sucher's grave. The song, originally written in the 19th century, later became one of the most popular SS songs during the Nazi era. It is no coincidence that it occupied the prestigious third place in the SS songbook of that time. At the funeral in Vienna, the version relating to the “Holy German Empire” was sung. According to experts who spoke in the Austrian press, this clip of the song may violate Austrian law.
The video recording did not reveal whether FPÖ representatives also sang the banned song at the funeral, but it is also not clear that they left the place of remembrance because the song commemorating the SS was played.
Because of the incident, the Freedom Party of Austria was sharply criticized by the Green Party, SPÖ, and Neos, and Jewish students complained about the incident. The Freedom Party of Austria responded by saying it was disrespectful to make a political issue out of the funeral.
