Austrian far-right politician urged to step down after racial and homophobic comments
Bruno Weber called a same-sex couple f*****s and 'a negro' after watching an advert
By Steve Brown
An Austrian far-right politician is being urged to resign after he said a gay couple were “f*****s” and “a negro”.
Bruno Weber – who sits on the city council in Amstetten and represents the far-right Freedom Party – made the homophobic and racial comments after seeing an advert for the country’s nationalised railway service OBB which features an interracial same-sex couple with their child.
His fellow party member Manfred Puhringer posted the advert – which says their new family railcard is for “a mother, father, partner or friends travelling with children” – on social media and captioned: “It’s not nice, is it?”
Then Weber replied: “That’s not normal! 2 alleged f*****s [and a] baby and of them, one is a negro. I’m afraid.”
He then went on to say the advert has made him not want to renew his railcard but instead use a privately run company.
Now, his rival parties – the Austrian People’s Party, Social Democratic Party and Greens – have all condemned his comments and the vice mayor Anton Katzengruber has urged Weber to quit.
Katzengruber said: “I do not understand why you would post something like that. But it once again shows the spirit of the FPO.
“After such statements, he can only resign, he harmed the city of Amstetten. We have also contacted the police to check if this is also a criminally relevant incident.
“This brings Amstetten back into a bad light that it does not deserve.”
Weber has since apologised for his comments and said: “My reaction to the OBB advertising poster posted here on Facebook on Tuesday was inappropriate and unacceptable due to the terms used.
“As a conservative person and family man, the traditional family image is simply important to me.”
Same-sex couples have been allowed to adopt since 2015 and marriage was legalised last year with weddings set to start next year.