Austrian president slams 'anti-Semitic' cartoon
Heinz Fischer condemns far-right Freedom Party leader for posting caricature angering Jewish community on his Facebook page, calling it 'low point of political culture'
Heinz Fischer called it "the low point of political culture, which deserves to be universally and roundly condemned."
The cartoon portrays a fat banker with a hooked nose and six-point star buttons on his sleeve gorging himself at the expense of a thin man representing "the people."
Strache denied being anti-Semitic after the cartoon provoked an outcry and demands from the Jewish community that Austria's political establishment condemn the act.
In a speech at the opening of a festival in Linz, Fischer said Strache was playing on the remnants of anti-Semitism in Austria, whose Jewish population was decimated after the annexation of the country by Nazi Germany in 1938.
"To that one can only say in the clearest terms: No way," Fischer said.
