Word: haider
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...right things. In some eyes he is merely a brash, Porsche-driving, bungee-jumping populist politician. In others he is a racist and an apologist for Nazism. He is unfairly vilified and misunderstood--or he is just plain bad. What is certain about the zig-zag course of Jorg Haider's right-wing ideology is that last week it brought him and his Freedom Party into a coalition government in Austria--and left the 14 other member countries of the European Union in a state of indignation. As Haider and his political partner, Wolfgang Schussel of the conservative People...
...threats and cajolery of E.U. leaders desperately trying to keep Haider from power failed--even after the U.S. and Israel, in rare forays into European domestic politics, threw in their weight, Israel by recalling its ambassador and the U.S. by bringing its ambassador home for "consultations." But some observers felt that the outside agitation merely served to bolster Haider's support--the 27% his party won in Austria's elections last October. As Anneliese Rohrer, domestic-affairs editor of the Vienna daily Die Presse, put it, "Austrians do not like to be kicked around. They are saying, 'Well, if they...
...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...
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...
Austria's poltergeists have been banging around, for example, as they do from time to time, roused by hearing a snatch of the old Nazi music. The evil nostalgia always leads to trouble, as it did with Kurt Waldheim some years ago, and now does with J?rg Haider's Freedom party...