But the international outcry has, if anything, led to a circling of the wagons in Austria, as it did when the country elected Kurt Waldheim president despite foreign condemnation of his wartime record. "Austrians don't like being told what to do," says TIME Central Europe bureau chief Andrew Purvis. "Their response is to hunker down and stick to their guns — European opposition has actually increased Haider's popularity in Austria."
Despite the furor over Haider's musings on Nazis, the more troubling issue for the E.U. may be the next Austrian government's policies toward Europe. "Haider's not actually pro-Nazi, nor are his supporters," says Purvis. "But he is a demagogue whose xenophobic and anti-immigration views are considered dangerous in Europe. Haider is opposed to E.U. plans to expand the union into Eastern Europe, and that could create a major problem for the E.U., since they operate by consensus." The People's party, for its part, has affirmed that it remains committed to E.U. enlargement, but European governments will keep a close watch on Austria's policies on Europe and immigration if the Freedom party, as expected, becomes part of government. Analysts have struggled to explain Haider's success at the polls, because his ominous predictions of foreigners swamping the job market seem a little misplaced at a time of low unemployment and widespread prosperity. Even then, 35 percent of Austrians voters aged 19 to 29 chose Haider. No wonder Europe's worried.