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Politician resigns after 'Hitler salute' photo

The Local Austria
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Politician resigns after 'Hitler salute' photo
The FPÖ has made headlines in Lower Austria. Photo: FPÖ campaign poster

The district chairman for the right-wing Freedom Party in Tulln, Lower Austria, has resigned after a photo surfaced of him and two friends appearing to make a Hitler salute.

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The photo of Andreas Bors, 25, was leaked to the local Bezirksblätter paper and was reportedly taken at a New Year’s Eve celebration in 2006.

Bors denied that the snapshot showed him giving a Hitler salute, and said that witnesses could confirm that he and his friends had been singing football songs.


Photo: Image courtesy of Bezirksblätter.

He told the Kurier newspaper that “in my opinion I’m not guilty. I was 17-years-old and alcohol was involved”. He said he had never had anything to do with National Socialism and that the eight-year-old photo had been leaked to the press in a “politically motivated act”.

The Bezirksblätter confronted the regional FPÖ party with the photo on Monday morning and by midday Bors had handed in his resignation. He was slated to be the FPÖ’s number one candidate for local elections in Tulln on January 25th.

The Lower Austrian branch of the FPÖ has been making headlines in recent weeks - the state party chairman Christian Höbart called asylum seekers “cavemen” and an internet video showed an FPÖ chairwoman, Sabine Singer, clearly under the influence of alcohol and unable to walk unaided.

In neighbouring Burgenland an FPÖ functionary has been remanded in custody after shooting a 13-year-old girl in the pelvis.

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