US administration's goal is to undermine the Orban government

An English translation of the title of Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky's second book reads: The Waldheim affair and Austria. The volume by the deputy state secretary for civil and public relations of the Prime Minister's Office deals with the case of Kurt Waldheim, the former Austrian president accused of Nazism and blacklisted by the United States during his time as head of state. In an interview for Magyar Nemzet, the deputy state secretary pointed out that this is not a one-off incident, as Hungary is facing mounting pressure from the Biden Administration, whose goal is to weaken the Orban government.

Szalay-Bobrovniczky Vince Magyar Diplomata és Politikus 20230925 Magyar Nemzet Fotó: Bach Máté

The official launch of your book entitled The Waldheim Affair and Austria took place not long ago. Why did you choose this particular topic?

- I first encountered the subject a long time ago, when I was still a student at the Austrian Institute in Budapest. I borrowed a few books from the library, and one of them was a volume about what happened in 1986 and the six years that followed, during the time that Kurt Waldheim was president of Austria. I was fascinated by the subject, and after that I worked for years in other fields, finished my schooling, and then became part of the foreign service in Vienna: I was the Hungarian ambassador to Austrian from 2010 to 2014. I have already written a book about those years, put out by Szazadveg , entitled Csatater Becs (Battlefield Vienna), which is actually my memoirs, but it also contains a lot about Austrian politics. I was once invited to the Waldheim Villa in Vienna, where I met the wife of the former Austrian president and had a very moving conversation with her which is when whole story re-entered my mind. After returning home from Vienna, I was deputy state secretary, first in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then in the Prime Minister's Office. Between the end of 2015 and 2016, I had a period of about six months to prepare for the Helsinki foreign service, that's when I wrote my two books. The other reason for choosing this subject was that there was a political and moral dilemma that interested me to no end: the issue of whether Kurt Waldheim had been a war criminal and how relevant it was that he had otherwise been in the vicinity of war crimes, even if his guilt had not been proven. And also how he should have handled it all as head of state.

What is certain is that the entire crisis was thoroughly mishandled.

Kurt Waldheim served two terms as UN Secretary-General from 1972 to 1982, before becoming Austria's president. Given his Nazi past, how was his position perceived by the international community?

- It is important to note that Kurt Waldheim was a member of the Wehrmacht in German uniform as a German citizen, for Austria was annexed by the German Reich in 1938. We are not talking about the SS, nor is there any documentary evidence that he ever served in the SS. All historians know that the two are not the same, although a Wehrmacht soldier could well have also been a war criminal, but in Waldheim's case there is no proof of a Nazi past. The book is also about this very political moral dilemma. Let us take a similar example: the term of office of Richard von Weizsacker, former president of the German Republic, coincides in part with that of Kurt Waldheim. Weizsacker was a soldier in the Wehrmacht and took part in Operation Barbarossa, which by invading the Soviet Union brought about the fall of the Germans. In addition, his father had served in a key, senior foreign affairs position in the Nazi apparatus, but as the son had faced up to the past, no one ever brought it up again.

Waldheim, on the other hand, made an attempt that went horribly wrong: he began to explain that he was only doing his duty, which outraged the Austrian public, saying that as an Austrian he had to serve Nazi Germany.

There are several points in the book indicating that Waldheim probably had no Nazi sentiments. In 1986, when the crisis erupted, an Austrian general said that Waldheim had reacted badly to the whole affair and should have said he was in the wrong uniform, fighting for the wrong cause and on the wrong side. Indeed, if he had done so, it might not have blown up into such a big deal.  Waldheim ultimately failed to talk his way out of the scandal that embroiled Austria for six years, from 1986 to 1992, and disappeared as if the crisis had never happened the moment the president resigned. One thing remains: in those years, Austrian politics, society, public life and historians rewrote - rightly, in my view - the Austrian war narrative. In 1938 Austria was invaded by the Germans, so the Austrian state is not really to blame, but is only partly responsible, for hundreds and thousands of Austrians committed war crimes, just look at the death sentences handed down at the Nuremberg trials, for example. The Austrian Ernst Kaltenbrunner was one of the highest-ranking officials in the Nazi apparatus as head of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). We can also mention Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the Nazi-minded Austrian Chancellor in 1938, who handed the country over to the Germans, and later became the Nazi Reich commissioner of the occupied Netherlands. Both of them were executed.

Former Austrian President Kurt Waldheim giving a speech on June 21, 1991. Photo: AFP/APA-PictureDesk

Waldheim's candidacy for head of state was much debated, but he did see out his six-year term. Although he did not run for another term, would there have been a chance of him being re-elected?

- In 1986, the entire Austrian public was aware of who they were voting for and Waldheim was elected by the highest margin of all Austria's presidents. I think the Austrians would have elected him in 1992, if only out of defiance, saying that nobody should interfere in their internal affairs. However, not standing again was an infinitely wise decision, as it protected Austria from further attacks. Then came the next round, the Schussel-Haider affair in 2000, when EU Member States imposed sanctions on Austria because the Austrian People's Party (OVP) had joined forces with the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPO). This was the second time after the Waldheim affair that Austria had been caught in the crossfire and once again - quite rightly - had to face up to its past. From the time of the Schussel-Haider government, Vienna has been paying reparations to Holocaust survivors to this day.

- How does the Austrian public view Kurt Waldheim and the Austria of that time?

- This is one of the most sensitive parts of my book. An Austrian historian has to be very brave to write a book like this, because he has to live in Austria and the media is the champion of political correctness there. I, as a Hungarian, claim to be able to see Waldheim objectively, with all his faults, including his failure to admit. Can what he is being accused of be proven? No. Did he have any choice once he was caught in this spiral? The scandal had already blown when he became the presidential candidate, yet he was elected. Did he have a choice politically? No, if he had resigned, it would have been political suicide for both him and for the People's Party. We are back to the realm of what-if questions: was the People's Party right to put Waldheim forward as a candidate for head of state, despite his past? I am not sure that there would not have been another, perhaps more correct, decision. My assumption is that he was nominated for head of state, with a record as foreign minister and UN Secretary-General behind him, because the then OVP chairman, Alois Mock, wanted to be chancellor.

Austria, like Hungary, is a parliamentary democracy with strong powers vested in the head of government, a largely representative role for the head of state, and somewhat stronger powers vested in the constitution than in Hungary. Like all party leaders in general, Alois Mock was interested in the position of head of government, even though he would have been a logical candidate for head of state, but then he would have had to give up on the post of chancellor. Instead, he took a gamble and put Waldheim's candidacy through the caucuses, hoping to emerge victorious and take the chancellorship soon afterwards. However, when the scandal broke, this was not what happened. The country was soon plunged into a long period of social democratic leadership under Chancellor Franz Vranitzky. Mock's plan did not work and the whole People's Party came out of it badly.

Deputy State Secretary Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky. Photo: Mate Bach

European and global elites did not really condemn Waldheim, as his political activity did not go against the ideas of liberals and globalists - for example, he did not criticize the federalist notions of the EU. Can we conclude that if a politician does not go against the European mainstream, even a possible Nazi past can be forgiven?

- What we know for sure is that Waldheim was a member of Germany's Nazi apparatus and a soldier in the Wehrmacht. We have seen before that although someone's past was not particularly clean, they were still well within the mainstream, but in Waldheim's case we cannot yet speak of that. At that time, Austria was far removed from European communities, and Waldheim himself was basically an absolutely conservative figure.

The Nazis prepared a file on everyone, and in his they wrote that he was from the National Socialist movement's perspective an unreliable, classical arch-conservative person - because of the latter, he had many disputes with the Social Democrats.

The case of Wolfgang Schussel is more interesting. He risked a lot by entering into a coalition with the Freedom Party and thus gain power. He was Chancellor of Austria for seven years, but he paid a heavy price for this, because what he really wanted was to become president of the European Commission, which he did not achieve. Despite winning the support of the majority of his coalition partner, the Freedom Party, and even taking the People's Party to unprecedented heights once in power, his path was cut short by entering into that coalition. It's a shame, as he was a brilliant talent on the horizon of  European politics.

Under pressure from the Austrian Left, the United States also entered into the campaign against Waldheim. Do you see any similarities with today's political situation?

-  Indeed, Washington came down pretty hard on the case, banning Waldheim. There was a similar instance in Hungary, the Goodfriend case [Andre Goodfriend served as the US embassy’s acting chief of mission in Budapest from 2013-2015 - ed], when the Americans put ten Hungarians on a barred from entry list. To this day, the public does not know who they are and what the reason or reasons are. I can see parallels between the two cases, both times the banning lists were tried. What is different between the two - and I think it very interesting - is that America had a conservative government in Waldheim's time. Ronald Reagan was the president, who has a statue in Budapest, then to be followed by George W. Bush, who also has a statue in Budapest. We have a great deal of respect for these American politicians, but they consistently decided - bowing to the denouncement of him by American Jewish organisations, Israel and the Austrian left - to get involved in the Waldheim affair and to bar from US entry the then sitting president of the Austrian Republic. Despite the initiative of the head of state, the ban was not lifted until his death in 2007. At that time, there were very close ties between the Republicans and the American Jewish organisations, which were needed in Washington and were also the biggest critics of Waldheim - rightly so, I think, from their point of view. The reason for the blacklisting of the ten Hungarian citizens is still unknown.

Since the United States again has a democratic government under the Biden Administration, they are once again trying to exert pressure. The aim at the least is to undermine the Orban government.

Cover photo: Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky, Deputy State Secretary for Civil and Public Relations of the Prime Minister's Office (Photo: Mate Bach)