Sa’ar Says Kickl Speech Allows Dialogue With Austria’s FPÖ

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Austrian Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl’s Strasbourg speech was an important and positive development that allows substantive dialogue with the FPÖ. Kickl condemned Hamas’s October 7 massacre and hostage-taking, called the attack a crime against humanity, and apologized to Nazi victims, their descendants and the Jewish people, especially Austrian Jews. He also backed Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, the IHRA antisemitism definition and moving Austria’s embassy to Jerusalem. Sa’ar said trust would depend on commitments becoming actions; Israel’s political boycott of the FPÖ has not yet been lifted.