0100,0100,0100Reading Gerd Nonnemacher's and Peter Thompson's satements
about recent developments in Austria, I found myself increasingly
astonished and concerned about the fact that they seemed to
allow their dissatisfaction with the European response to the FPÖ
as well as with the old Austrian system of government to govern
their analysis.
It is true that foreign attempts at censoring the Austrian voters in
order to dissuade them from supporting questionable parties and
candidates have in the past been rather counter-productive. But it
is quite misleading to suggest that "Austria" or "the Austrians"
collectively wanted Haider and his party in government when they
last voted. Both the SPÖ and the ÖVP had declared publicly that
they would not form a coalition with the FPÖ, indeed, the ÖVP had
even promised to go into opposition if they were to score fewer
votes than the FPÖ. Approximately 70% of the electorate voted for
parties which were, at the time, opposed to the prospect of the
FPÖ joining Austria's government. While the new government was
formed on the basis of democratic elections, it cannot claim to
represent the will of the voters.
It is equally problematic to characterise the FPÖ as a mere protest
party whose voters don't really know what or who they are
supporting. 'Protest' has become a far too abstract (and thus pretty
meaningless) concept to guide any analysis of voting trends.
Protest against the Austrian 'Proporz' system and the Great
coalition could have been articulated in many different forms over
the past 16 years. In fact, throughout the 1980s it would have
been much more plausible to describe the Austrian Green Party as
a protest party. The fact that an increasing number of voters
supported Jörg Haider instead, must at least suggest that they are
expressing a very specific type of protest, based on xenophobia
and a deep insecurity about Austrian identity and history, favouring
an authoritarian style of politics over a democratic one and the
identification with a strong leader over taking responsibility
themselves.
This is not yet fascism, and there are certainly similarities between
Haider's agenda and that of many other European politicians, but it
must at least give rise to some concern. The dynamics of this type
of politics will not suddenly come to a halt with the inclusion of the
FPÖ in the Austrian government, especially as Mr Haider's position
outside of the government will allow him to continue to present
himself as the focus for the kind of dissatisfaction which he
himself stirs up and exploits so expertly.
______________________________________________
Dr Matthias Uecker
School of Modern Languages - German Studies
The Queen's University of Belfast
Belfast, BT7 1NN
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