Far Right Tears Up Austria’s Political Turf

The far-right Freedom Party, whose leader once praised the economic accomplishments of Adolf Hitler, soared in Sunday’s general elections to become Austria’s second-strongest political force and cripple the grand coalition that has ruled this nation for 13 years.

Fueled by the party’s anti-foreigner battle cry, Austria’s most dramatic electoral upset of the post-World War II era edged the center-right People’s Party into third place and stripped incumbent Chancellor Viktor Klima’s Social Democrats of parliamentary seats and much of their political clout.

The outcome throws into doubt how Austria will be governed for the next four years, as neither of the traditional parties is willing to cooperate with the Freedom Party’s nationalist firebrand, Joerg Haider.

A beaming Haider proclaimed himself pleased by Austrians’ support for “an interesting new political spectrum” that recognizes his party as a legitimate force in the power structure. On the strength of the charismatic, if unsettling, leader’s rostrum-thumping oratory and resonance with blue-collar crowds, the Freedom Party took 27.3% of the vote, compared with 26.9% for the People’s Party and

33% for the Social Democrats.

Both mainstream parties reiterated their campaign vows to reject any alliance with Haider, and People’s Party chief Wolfgang Schuessel confirmed his intention to retreat into opposition amid the humiliation of a third-place finish.

“It’s run its course,” Schuessel said of the Social Democratic-People’s coalition that has been steadily losing support in state elections for years. “That’s the signal we’ve received tonight from the voters.”

Klima--whose party Sunday suffered the biggest setback from the results of the last national election, in 1995, when it polled more than 38% of the vote--was likewise chastened.

“The Social Democrats have lost a lot of votes. This is a reprimand from the voters. But we remain the largest party in parliament, and I believe the federal president will be mindful of that when he makes his decision,” the chancellor told Austrian TV viewers while standing in a posture that exuded defeat.

Gridlock Expected After Negotiations

The political gridlock expected to result from three-party negotiations over the next week or so promises to send the decision of who will become chancellor to Austria’s figurehead president, Thomas Klestil. Although the selection is likely to be Klima, head of the party with the most votes, he would be shackled by the absence of a parliamentary majority to put his ideas into motion.

The rise of Haider’s party from the extremist fringe to the heavyweight ranks reflects the deep--and often perplexing--discomfort felt by those in many regions of Western Europe in the turbulent wake of the revolutions still sweeping the east. Although Austria’s economy is booming and its jobless rate of 4.5% is the envy of the continent, Haider’s blend of anti-foreigner rhetoric and concern for the common laborer struck a chord with countrymen fearful that membership in the European Union will expose Austrians to growing competition for new jobs.

Less than 10% of Austria’s population of 8 million consists of foreign residents, about 750,000 by official count. But Haider’s party insists that as many as 400,000 more live and work here illegally and that the floodgates from the east will be wide open once neighbors such as Hungary and the Czech Republic are allowed to join the EU. He vehemently opposed Austria’s entry into the trade bloc when the country joined in 1995.

Not since Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic convinced fellow Serbs that they were endangered by other nationalities has a European politician done more to unleash xenophobia among his people. In fact, many economic analysts attribute Austria’s recent prosperity to its thriving commerce and cooperation with the fledgling capitalist democracies of the East.

A youthful 49 with seemingly boundless energy, Haider vowed on the campaign trail to break the coalition government’s decades-long tradition of patronage, and that pledge probably also went down well with voters. The two parties that have dominated politics in Austria since its independence from Allied control in 1955 have so saturated the public sector with appointments of friends and supporters that the bureaucracy is ossified--and so expensive that income taxes reach as high as 45%.

Haider took a back seat in the campaign to the Freedom Party’s putative “top candidate,” Thomas Prinzhorn, claiming he was obliged to serve out his term as governor of Carinthia rather than run himself as the party’s likely contender for the chancellery. But he made clear after the results that he will be available in the event--however unlikely, in the view of other politicians--that he is asked by the president to form a new government.

“If circumstances were to arise that made it essential for me to be in the capital, the people of Carinthia would understand,” Haider told an interviewer from state-owned ORF television.

In the volatile environment of Central Europe, where double-digit unemployment and strangling taxes have given rise to outbursts of right-wing radicalism throughout the region, mainstream politicians fear that a position of power for a figure like Haider, the son of a low-ranking Nazi bureaucrat, could encourage extremism.

Haider’s stated admiration for Hitler’s success in putting Germans back to work after the Weimar-era depression instigated controversy a decade ago, as did his observation that many SS troops were “men of character.” He later apologized for giving offense, but the comments have done anything but cost him with voters.

On the last day of campaigning Thursday, Klima warned Austrians that they could make their country “ungovernable” by depriving the coalition that has overseen an economic rebound in Austria of the support both parties needed to continue ruling by consensus.

Little to Celebrate for Mainstream Parties

There was little celebration Sunday at the campaign headquarters of either the Social Democrats or the People’s Party, as supporters watched the results reaffirm the outcome of the voting with each fresh tabulation. Adding to the disappointment of those who fear the undertones of intolerance in Haider’s message was the failure of the Liberal Party to poll anywhere near the 5% minimum required to enter the 183-seat parliament. The liberals, who founded the Freedom Party decades ago but defected after Haider’s right-wingers took over in 1986, won only 3.4%, losing all nine seats they control in the current legislature.

The only other party to surpass the 5% threshold was the environmentalist Greens, who wound up with a 7% finish and at least 12 seats. That share is still too small, though, to prompt any of the three leading forces to put aside their significant differences with the Greens and invite them into government.

Turnout among the 5.8 million registered voters fell sharply from the 87% participation four years ago, but it still reached 76%--respectable by the standards of most Western democracies.