The anti-immigrant FPÖ, junior coalition government partner to Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), was founded by former Nazis and has repeatedly excluded members in Nazi scandals. It says it has left its Nazi past behind.

The FPÖ’s top candidate for elections in the state of Lower Austria, Udo Landbauer, was deputy leader of a fraternity that produced a songbook in 1997 that included references to killing Jews.

Authorities are investigating the issue.

President Alexander Van der Bellen eventually called for Landbauer to resign.

Asked by ÖRF radio whether he can rule out stepping down, Landbauer, 31, said, “Decidedly.”

Austria’s main Jewish body, the IKG, and Israel have upheld their boycott of FPÖ officials even after they joined government last month upon gaining third place, with 26% of votes, in parliamentary elections in October.

The chief of Lower Austria’s ÖVP, which got around half of the votes in Sunday’s elections, said she was ready to work with the FPÖ, which gained 15% of votes, but ruled out bringing Landbauer into the province’s cabinet.