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07/19/2008: "A Grand Coalition Fails, Leaving Room for Radicals - Austria"

Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer's term in office has ended in fiasco amid infighting, tactical errors and his own overestimation of himself. The populist, far-right Freedom Party will benefit: It has good prospects in Vienna for the first time since the Jorg Haider era.

Meanwhile, the populist right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), led by Heinz-Christian Strache, has delved deep into the ranks of blue-collar workers, the unemployed and energetic pensioners who spend their days complaining about rising prices and the power-hungry bickering of the "big parties." Strache and his FPO have nationwide approval ratings of 20 percent. The young upstart politician -- who once staged paramilitary games with fellow gun enthusiasts in the forests of the Austrian state of Carinthia and was affiliated with the now-banned neo-Nazi Viking Youth group -- uses well-tried methods to win popular support. He calls for more social services for the needy, he agitates against Brussels EU "dictates," and he inveighs against foreigners using slogans like "Daham statt Islam" (Home, not Islam) and "Deutsch statt nix versteh'n" (German, not "I don't understand").

Strache's political mentor, Jorg Haider, turned the FPO into the country's second-largest party using similar rhetoric less than nine years ago -- and helped make Wolfgang Schussel chancellor. After the September election, Strache hopes to influence the shape of a new government. And his prospects are good.

[ When the Freedom Party won unprecedented power in Austria, the European Union imposed sanctions. It was the only time the EU has ever taken such measures against another European state. So this is what happens when democracy results in the wrong party gaining too much power. See http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/feb2000/haid-f22.shtml ]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,566744,00.html