The governing coalition of Austria presented their “National Strategy Against Antisemitism 2.0”, which includes a total of 49 measures and is set to apply for the period of 2025-2030, building on the first strategy of 2021.
The New Strategy in the Fight Against Antisemitism seeks to respond to a “new dimension of antisemitism”, according to the responsible State Secretary Alexander Pröll, which includes online antisemitism and hate speech on the internet. For instance, AI-supported systems for detecting hate speech are to advance.
The President of the Jewish Communities of Austria (IRO) Oskar Deutsch pointed that, even in the past, pogroms began “with words, with insults, with lies, with rumours about Jews, with exclusion and boycotts”, when referring to current commemoration of the November pogroms of 1938.
Additionally, the creation of an Austrian Holocaust museum is to be considered, and several measures regard the educational sector.
Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr already announced a new “Guidance on Dealing with Antisemitic Incidents in Schools”, which involves visits to memorial sites. In integration courses, participants will in the future be required to sign a “Declaration Against Antisemitism”.
