Austria’s foreign ministry has recalled an employee of its embassy in Israel after an Austrian weekly said he posted a picture of himself on social media wearing a T-shirt bearing the name of a Nazi tank division.
The Falter weekly published a screenshot of the attache’s Facebook page which shows him in a green shirt with the words “stand your ground” and “Frundsberg”. Frundsberg was a German Waffen SS armoured division during World War Two.
The attaché, Jürgen-Michael Kleppich, is a member of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), which is a junior partner in Austria’s coalition government. He was sent to Tel Aviv in December to help out at the embassy for a few months, Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl told radio station ORF on Wednesday.
Kleppich was summoned to Vienna to “clarify all circumstances” of the case, said Kneissl. It was not immediately clear whether he would be allowed to resume his post in due course.
The incident is the latest in a series of embarrassments for the anti-immigrant FPÖ, which in December joined Austria’s national government for the first time in more than a decade, and has been trying for years to shed any Nazi associations.
The party was founded by former SS officers in the 1950s but says it has left its past behind and has regularly expelled officials in recent years over alleged Nazi links.
Kneissl said she would consult her ministry’s human resources department on Kleppich.
“If there is a disciplinary cause, a disciplinary procedure will be initiated,” she said.
Israel has said it will not do business with FPÖ ministers, only with the “operational echelons” of government departments headed by an FPÖ minister.
The FPÖ controls the foreign, interior and defence ministries. The FPÖ nominated Kneissl for the post of foreign minister, though she is not officially a member of the party.
