Waldheim Won’t Make Speech to Parliament About Anschluss
President Kurt Waldheim, bowing to protests, will not speak when Parliament marks the 50th anniversary of the Nazi takeover in March, but will address a separate meeting later in his palace residence, the government said today.
The two events were announced within hours of each other today in an apparent attempt to avoid disagreement between the conservative and Socialist parties over Waldheim’s role in marking Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938.
Waldheim has been hounded by controversy since March, 1986, when published reports and the World Jewish Congress disclosed that he served with the German army in the Balkans in World War II.
The plan to have Waldheim speak at a gathering in the Hofburg palace drew immediate protest from the small Greens party. A Socialist party source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said his party is very unhappy about the decision to hold the Hofburg ceremony.
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