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Secondly, I thought some poeople might be interested on the following statement from the Austrian Young European Movement (JEF-Austria) on the Haider issue and the EU response. It is (unsurprisingly) rather more informed than the current debate in the British media. ****************************************************************** JEF-Austria's official position concerning the current situatiuon in Austria Dear friends and Jeffers, In this situation it is not easy to find the right words but we would like to first of all point out the following: There can be no doubt about JEF-Austria's opposition against Joerg Haider and his policies. At the same time we were all shocked about the reaction of Austria's partners in the Union and we had to realise, that the desicion of Lissabon had brought Austria into a fatal deadlock, which worsened the political situation in Austria even more than it has already been before. First of all let us take a look at the mentioned situation in Austria: Our country was gouverned since World War II (with some few exceptions) by the two previousely big parties SPOe (Social Democratic Party of Austria) and OeVP (Austrian Peoples Party). In 1986 Jörg Haider took over the FPOe (Austrian Freedom Party) - in those days only the marginal third power in the Austrian political environment. Up to this moment the FPOe consisted of two major ideological wings: Liberals (here you find the reason for the party's name) and Nationalists. The ongoing struggle between those two directions was brought to an end from the moment Haider took over the party. This issue was finally resolved by the break-off of the liberal wing (foundation of the Party "Liberal Forum") and the resignment of the FPOe from its membership in the international organisation of the liberal parties. While the Liberal Forum is loosing slowly its importance again, Haider and his FPOe run one success after the other. He knows exactly what certain people want to hear. On the other hand the governing parties SPOe and OeVP were in the unfortunate situation to be chained together because of the lack of other parliamentarian majorities since 1986. Since that time Austria seemed to have lost the chance of change of power, which is the most necessary thing for a democracy, as there were just three real options: Two of them included the FPOe and the one therefore remaining option was and is the "big coalition" of SPOe and OeVP. In fact the cooperation of these two parties seems to have come to a dead-end. The "red-black" coalition is - at least with the present political actors - burned out. At the same time Austria desperately waits for the realisation of urgant reforms (recovery of the budget, reform of the social system, media policy, security policy, research and development, etc.). It's already four months that we are waiting for a new government that tackles these reforms. Obviously the OeVP now dares to make the step which every party refused to do since 1986. The OeVP wants to govern together with the FPOe and consequently to break out of the vicious circle as it is: Big Coalition > Burnout through govermental work > Haider can fully establish his opposition policy > Haider gains profits in votes. At the last election Haider reached the second position in Austria (with about 400 votes in front of the OeVP). After that Austria now faces the real danger that the maintainance ot the status quo in Austria would establish the FPOe as the strongest political party at the next elections. During the last ten days the delegations of OeVP and FPOe are talking about the programme of their probable coalition without - by the way - the official order by the president of the republic. The whole country - Haider`s opponents as well as his supporters - are curious what would be the outcome of that option. Anyway it seemed to be obvious that this is the only way to create a stable government in Austria and - even more important - the only possibility to stop Haider´s rise, as far as this is possible anyhow. The basis of these hope is found in the following thoughts: 1) An FPOe in power is no longer able to get profile in opposition and will be forced to take unpopular measures.: 2) SPOe and OVPe get the opportunity to present themselves with a new profile and to modernise themselves. The OVPe in the role of the leading governing party can prove its potential as creative power and the SPOE as big opposition can now overtake again the role for its traditional voters - an ability they have lost to the FPOe recently. In other words: Against the perspective of any election under the maintainance of the present goverenment there is the well-founded hope that at elections after the expirement of "black-blue" a new distribution of power in parliament can happen (e.g. red-green) and that the FPOe will not continue in furtheron gaining votes. This analysis is totally in question after the reaction of the 14 EU-member countries. Whatever was published about the debates between black and blue showed that Wolfgang Schüssel would have reached a success. He was able to reach the agreement of FPOe about a more tolerant policy concerning imigration (of course nobody can expect such a government would fulfill a really immigration-friendly policy especially as EU agrees to deal with immigration in a restrictive way, but at least the demanded stop of immigration by the FPOe was no longer on the table); the OeVP achieved the agreement of FPOe towards enlargement of the Union, too, and has determined to move into that coalition only when Austria continues with its pro-european policy. In that situation the EU-member states turn up and execute an action without any example in internation relations. The decision of the 14 hits all European Austrians directly in their heart. As JEF we understand and share the intention of the EU-partners - especially their warning of the danger concerning rassist and intolerant policies. That new measurement in European Politics has to be welcomed and must lead to the fact that all member states look at their own policies and act more liberal and open towards immigrants. The internal consequences of the Lisboa resolution can on the other hand not be estimated - it moved Austria into a dilemma with dangerous consequences as MEP Ursula Stenzel (OeVP) correctly mentioned: Either Austria establishes that government and will be really isolated or it gives in to the pressure from outside which might lead to a further uncalculable strenghtening of the FPOe. In any case, the pro-european work that we have done so far in Austria is completely destroyed and Haider will be happy about it. We want to close with an appeal to all Jeffers: Do not let it happen, that Austria as a whole will be banned. We ask everyone not to put any unqualified statements like they already happened in german JEF-Info into the debate. Please respect that Austria finds itself since years in a very difficult political situation even without the pressure from abroad. And - please! - we are not a country of faschists! The only thing left to say is that the Europeans in Austria desperately wait for HELP from their friends in Europe. Yours, JEF-Austria %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%