Austrian MPs vote down bill that would have granted passports to the descendants of Nazi victims

Both bills would have made it easier for second- and third-generation Holocaust survivors to get an Austrian passport by amending the citizenship law, removing existing residency requirements and the need to renounce one’s existing citizenship.

Before the vote, SPÖ leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner condemned the government for not bringing about these changes sooner, arguing an important opportunity was missed during the memorial year of 2018 — marking 80 years since the Anschluss and Kristallnacht — to “send an important signal.”

She called the committee vote a “litmus test” by which the government’s desire to “eliminate injustice” could be judged.

After the government deferred her bill, NEOS home affairs spokesperson Stephanie Krisper said it was  “a slap in the face and show of disrespect towards the victims of National Socialism and their descendants.”

Extending to second- and third-generation Holocaust survivors the right to obtain Austrian passport nonetheless remains government policy.

Prompted by the opposition’s bills, FPÖ interior minister Herbert Kickl announced they would bring forward their own draft legislation on the matter by the end of 2019.