Around 6,000 human rights activists demonstrated in the centre of the Austrian capital Vienna tonight against the extreme right-wing Freedom Party of Mr Joerg Haider, police said.
The organisers said 13,000 protesters took part in the demonstration called to protest recent remarks by Haider which have been criticised as anti-Semitic.
"This demonstration ... is a very clear reaction to the breaching of taboos by the far right," said Mr Silvio Lehmann, one of the organisers.
Mr Haider recently said of Mr Ariel Muzicant, leader of Austria's Jewish community, that "I cannot understand how someone called Ariel (a brand of washing powder) can have so much dirt on his hands". Mr Haider rejected accusations that he was being anti-Semitic.
In a statement read to the protesters in Vienna, Mr Muzicant regretted that "racism and anti-semitism are once again being used in politics."
Austrian Chancellor Mr Wolfgang Schuessel has been criticised by the press and by the opposition for failing to come out clearly against Mr Haider's comment.
The EU imposed sanctions on Austria after a power-sharing agreement let teh Freedom party into the government in February 2000.
AFP