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IMMIGRATION

Graves defiled with swastikas and slogans

A Jewish and a Muslim cemetery were defiled with Nazi symbols and anti-migrant slogans in western Austria, police said on Monday, just weeks after similar attacks on a refugee hostel and Jewish museum.

Graves defiled with swastikas and slogans
'Stop the asylum flood' was daubed on a refugee hostel earlier this month. Photo: Polizei

Unknown perpetrators desecrated graves and buildings with a red pen in the Jewish cemetery of the town of Hohenems, close to the Swiss border, some time between Saturday night and Sunday morning, a police spokeswoman told the APA news agency.

The offenders also drew swastikas and wrote racist slogans at a Muslim burial ground in the nearby municipality of Altach.

Police suspect the attacks were carried out by the same people who earlier this month painted phrases like “Stop the asylum flood” on a refugee hostel and drew swastikas on buildings in the Jewish quarter, including the Jewish Museum, in Hohenems.

The town's mayor, Richard Amann of the conservative ÖVP, is currently embroiled in a legal battle with the right-wing FPÖ party over his victory in municipal elections in March.

The FPÖ had come first with 43.3 percent, but Amann ended up winning the run-off vote by 125 votes.

FAR-RIGHT

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Radical Austrian nationalist Martin Sellner has been banned from entering Germany, it emerged on Tuesday, days after he was deported from Switzerland.

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Sellner, a leader of Austria’s white pride Identitarian Movement, posted a video of himself on X, formerly Twitter, reading out a letter he said was from the city of Potsdam.

A spokeswoman for the city authorities confirmed to AFP that an EU citizen had been served with a “ban on their freedom of movement in Germany”.

The person can no longer enter or stay in Germany “with immediate effect” and could be stopped by police or deported if they try to enter the country, the spokeswoman said, declining to name the individual for privacy reasons.

READ ALSO: Who is Austria’s far-right figurehead banned across Europe?

“We have to show that the state is not powerless and will use its legitimate means,” Mike Schubert, the mayor of Potsdam, said in a statement.

Sellner caused an uproar in Germany after allegedly discussing the Identitarian concept of “remigration” with members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at a meeting in Potsdam in November.

Reports of the meeting sparked a huge wave of protests against the AfD, with tens of thousands of Germans attending demonstrations across the country.

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Swiss police said Sunday they had prevented a hundred-strong far-right gathering due to be addressed by Sellner, adding that he had been arrested and deported.

The Saturday meeting had been organised by the far-right Junge Tat group, known for its anti-immigration and anti-Islamic views.

The group is also a proponent of the far-right white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory espoused by Sellner’s Identitarian Movement.

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