Hard Gaze on Austria’s Actions

Austria’s President Thomas Klestil all but held his nose Friday as he swore in a new Cabinet that unites the extremist Freedom Party with the conservative People’s Party. Klestil’s undisguised distaste reflected both his own views about the Freedom Party and its leader, Joerg Haider, and his concern over the international damage that the accession of the far-right movement is doing to Austria.

Reaction to the new government was swift. The European Union moved to limit political contacts with Austria, one of its 15 members. Other states followed suit. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright denounced the inclusion in the coalition of a party that “doesn’t distance itself clearly from the atrocities of the Nazi era and the politics of hate.” Israel recalled its ambassador to Vienna. Authorities in Liege, Belgium, refused to lend a Gauguin painting to an Austrian museum. Belgian schools called off planned ski trips to Austrian resorts.

The Freedom Party won 27% of the vote in last October’s election. It made its way to power after the left-center Social Democrats and the People’s Party couldn’t agree on terms for continuing their long-time ruling partnership and the People’s Party had to turn rightward, to Haider’s party, to form a majority government. The Freedom Party appeals to anti-foreign sentiment and opposes the EU’s expansion into Eastern Europe. Haider, who didn’t join the Cabinet, has become notorious for statements that praised some aspects of Nazism.

It was against this background that Klestil required the new coalition partners to sign a declaration promising to work for an Austria where “xenophobia, anti-Semitism and racism have no place” and to accept Austria’s share of responsibility for the “horrendous crimes” of the Nazi era. Haider signed the declaration, then immediately denounced it as “an affront to the Austrian public.” Presumably he was referring to the part of the public that continues to find nothing in the past to regret.

Austria’s diplomatic isolation won’t be fatal, though threatened economic boycotts could bite. The new coalition says it will respect the humane values embraced by the EU. It will be judged, properly and we hope steadfastly, not on what it promises but on how it acts.