British actor Stephen Fry looks forward to Austrian election as new voter

By Dave Graham

(Reuters) - British actor Stephen Fry has praised Austria for welcoming him as a citizen and giving him the right to vote in the country's upcoming election following a change in the law that sought to address Austria's crimes under Nazism.

In 2019, the Austrian parliament passed a bill making descendants of Austrians who fled Nazi rule eligible for citizenship, a step which Fry told newspaper Der Standard was a "noble gesture" in an interview published on Saturday.

Fry, one of Britain's best-known actors and TV broadcasters, said this month in a video on social media that he had obtained citizenship because he had grandparents from Austria and that his great-grandparents had died in the Holocaust.

After thanking Austria for changing the law and urging others to vote in the Sept. 29 parliamentary election, Fry said: "I am so proud to be Austrian."

Austria became part of Nazi Germany in 1938 following its annexation by Adolf Hitler, who was born in Austria.

Referring to Britain's exit from the European Union, the 67-year-old Fry told Der Standard that becoming an EU citizen again had enabled him to "to stick my tongue out at Brexit", according to the German text of his interview.

This month's election will be the first time that thousands of people who took advantage of the law changes allowing them to become dual nationals can vote in an Austrian general election.

About 33,000 people have acquired that right over the last four years, according to the Austrian government.

The election looks set to be very close, with the opposition far-right Freedom Party (FPO) running just ahead of the ruling conservative Austrian People's Party (OVP) in opinion polls. No party is expected to win an outright majority.

The legislation to change Austrian citizenship rules was put forward by an OVP-FPO coalition before that government unravelled in 2019 due to an influence-peddling scandal. It was passed during the ensuing caretaker administration.

Fry, who rose to fame in comedy shows such as "Blackadder" and "Jeeves and Wooster", did not reveal who he was voting for, but mentioned the rising support for the right.

"You hear that right-wing forces are growing again in Germany and then wonder whether Austria is also moving in the same direction," said Fry, who according to his website once joined Britain's centre-left Labour Party. "It's a story that's being watched all over the world."

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Additional reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Helen Popper)