Walter Rosenkranz has become the first member of the Freedom Party to be speaker, one of the country's highest-ranking positions.

His critics point to his membership of a far-right fraternity and his praise for a prominent Nazi, arguing such a senior office requires a more statesmanlike figure. "It is still difficult for me to realise that you have thus added me to a long line of historic figures of this country,

Austrian lawmakers on Thursday elected for the first time a far-right politician as parliament president despite the Jewish community criticising the nominee for having paid "hommage to Nazi criminals".