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Austria: Neo-nazis second largest party

01 September 1999

The Freiheitliche Partei Osterreichs (FPO), led by Jorg Haider who was forced to resign the governorship of Corinthia in 1991 after praising Hitler's "orderly employment policies", became Austria's second largest political force after winning 27.2% of the vote in October's general election. The far-right party who conducted a xenophobic campaign, claiming that Austria was being "swamped" by foreigners, won 53 seats in the Bundesrat. They finished behind the ruling Sozialdemokratische Partei Osterreichs (SPO) (33.3%) and narrowly ahead of the conservative Osterreichische Volkspartei (26.9%).

Haider has seen a massive increase in the FPO's vote since the beginning of the 1990s and only two weeks before the Bundesrat campaign they made significant gains in local elections. His popularity has not been dented by deferential gestures towards fascism, as in 1994, when he addressed a rally of German and Austrian war veterans which included former Waffen-SS men in 1994, calling them "men of good character". Nevertheless, he has recently attempted to distance himself from his more overt fascist sentiments, claiming to have discovered a third way: "As far as our ideals are concerned we agree with Tony Blair and Gerhard Scroeder on all fundamental questions...They are expressing views which a few years ago were regarded as un-social-democratic - for example on law and order, on immigration, on taxes and on the individual's responsibility towards the community. We have been saying that for years, Blair is simply putting it into practice.

Times 2.10.99; website