Austrian politician calls remarks 'anti-Semitic,'
plans lawsuit

VIENNA
(March 8, 2001 12:25 p.m. EST ) - As citizens of Vienna prepare to head to the polls, the head of Austria's Jewish community said Thursday he plans to sue far-right head Joerg Haider over an allegedly anti-Semitic slur.

Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, who struck a controversial power-sharing deal with Haider last year, also spoke out against the far-right leader concerning comments about Jewish leader Ariel Muzicant.

Muzicant said the Austrian Jewish community has agreed to sue Haider, as campaigning heats up for the March 25 election.

"I don't understand how someone called Ariel can have such dirty hands," the rabble-rousing leader told a rally of over 2,000 party supporters, referring to a well-known brand of soap powder.

The remark was criticized as being anti-Semitic because of historic criticism of Jews as dirty.

Muzicant confirmed that the Jewish community's 24-member leadership had agreed Tuesday to take legal action over the remark.

"I don't know when the suit will be filed in court. Our lawyers are taking care of it," he told AFP.

Haider has defended the remarks, saying Jewish origin did not mean immunity from criticism. The criticism referred to debts which the Jewish community leadership has accumulated, he said.

He told the weekly magazine Format that his remark "had nothing to do-with anti-Semitism .. It cannot be the case that someone of Jewish origin who occupies a public position is immune from criticism," he said.

But Haider, whose party took national power in a coalition government last year, has faced growing criticism in recent weeks over a series of allegedly anti-Semitic remarks.

Critics have focused on derogatory references to the U.S. "East Coast," a coded allusion to a perceived U.S. Jewish lobby.

"Apparently Haider is using anti-Semitism practically openly in his campaign," Muzicant said.

Vienna Mayor Michael Haeupl described Haider's comments about Muzicant last week as "anti-Semitism pure and simple."

The far-right is openly using fears about foreigners in its campaign in Vienna. One poster plastered all over the city in recent weeks reads: "Foreigners: I understand the concerns of the Viennese people."

The Vienna ballots are seen as a crucial test for the far-right, which suffered slumps in two provincial ballots last year.

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