Austrian politician attacks Jewish museum director

An Austrian right-wing party leader may face prosecution for calling a Jewish museum director a “Jew in exile from America”.

Dieter Egger, head of the Freedom Party which is part of the coalition government in the country’s Vorarlberg province, was responding to criticism from Hanno Loewy, director of the Jewish museum in Hohenems.

Mr Egger had previously said that he believed that all Austrians should be forced to leave the country if they did not agree with his policy to pay family benefits only to native Austrians.

Mr Loewy publically took exception to the comment, comparing the statement to the deportation of Jewish Austrians by the Nazis.