The World - News from Feb. 23, 1988

Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky’s Socialist Party said the continuing controversy over Kurt Waldheim’s wartime record makes it impossible for him to continue as president and called for talks aimed at replacing Waldheim. “The current dreadful situation cannot continue,” party leader Fred Sinowatz said, presenting a statement agreed on unanimously by the party executive, including Vranitzky. The party called on its Conservative coalition partners to discuss “a new beginning” for the presidency. The statement, amounting to a resignation appeal, was a major blow to Waldheim, who has vowed to stay in office despite the finding of a historical commission that he had known about Nazi war crimes and failed to stop them.