Word: austria
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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However reactionary it may appear, the E.U.'s action is in many ways an understandable response to the current political environment in Europe. After almost 50 years of relative democratic stability in most E.U. member nations, the prospect of Austria's coalition government leading the subcontinent down a slippery slope towards fascist governance is highly unlikely. But the prospect that the new Austrian government will set a precedent for middle-right/far-right coalitions throughout Europe--a political landscape that has been kept in balance in the post World War II era by moderate/middle-right coalitions--is not so far fetched. Austria...
...political stability and burgeoning economic cooperation than any possibility of future trends in middle-right/far-right coalition governments. And, whether or not the stability of the E.U. as a whole suffers as a result of the recent debacle, it is almost inevitable that the economic and political stability of Austria will be adversely affected. (The Austrian stock market has already fallen substantially in the past week.) Perhaps most frightening, though, is that the E.U.'s actions threaten to cause a political backlash in Austria, which may actually strengthen Haider's support...
...hope that Freedom Party/People's Party coalition would break apart, giving his own Social-Democratic Party another shot at gaining power. These suspicions are bolstered by the E.U.'s own hypocrisy in that several of the member nations that have loudly denounced maintaining diplomatic relations with Austria so long as the Freedom Party shares power nonetheless maintain political and economic ties with brutally dictatorial countries such as Iran, Libya and Cuba...
Cutting diplomatic ties with and sanctioning Austria is thus nothing short of a hugely hypocritical mistake. If the E.U. has a genuine concern for the maintenance of Austrian democracy then it should attentively watch Austrian political developments and sustain close diplomatic ties so that, in the case that Haider ever tries to subvert democracy in the name of fascist governance, the E.U. still has political leverage with the Austrian government. Isolating Austria will only allow hatred and xenophobia to ferment and diminish the chances of diplomatically forestalling political crisis should the Austrian government ever actually turn to undemocratic practices...
There are cases all around us of individuals speaking for groups and of groups coming to the consensus of individuals. Consider the stand the E.U. is taking against Austria and the dominos that have fallen since the U.S. ambassador withdrew. I don't mean to hold argumentative, individualist logic on a high plane above consensus. Intuition can be a great help in situations where the facts are dubious...