Forward into the Past

When Austria's Jrg Haider commended Hitler's "orderly" employment policies and praised former members of the Waffen SS as "decent men of good character" he was an ambitious outsider from Austria's rural Carinthia province looking for a way to broaden his appeal to older voters. Such thinking was not unheard of at the time. Then, as now, Austria had not fully come to terms with its role in the crimes of the Third Reich. After all, when it emerged in 1986 that Kurt Waldheim, the former United Nations Secretary-General, had allegedly covered up aspects of his activities during the Second World War, Austrians reacted to the international outcry by electing him President.

Since 1995, when Haider last spoke of the SS, his popularity has grown dramatically. His Freedom Party garnered 27% of the vote in general elections last October and reached as high as 31% in polls conducted this January. Now, the buffed and youthful-looking career politician, who turned 50 last week, is poised to grab a leading role in the ruling coalition. That could happen within days if talks under way between his Freedom Party and the mainstream conservative People's Party succeed. The new government would be the first democratically elected one in Europe since World War II to elevate a far-right party to such a prominent role.

That prospect sent shudders through capitals from Berlin to Stockholm and most of all in Jerusalem, where Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called on Europe's leaders to forge a common front to warn Austrians of the dangers ahead. French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin lamented the rise of a party "which had not dealt with its Nazi past," while Nicole Fontaine, head of the European Parliament, said it would be "intolerable" for a party that "negates the fundamental principles of respect for human rights" to take power in a member state. In Germany Michel Friedman, deputy chairman of the Central Council of Jews, said a Haider coalition could act as a "boost or disinhibition" for extremist forces throughout Europe. "Austria is now a dark stain on the European perimeter," said a statement from the Paris-based Movement against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples.

In Austria, the news deepened the anxiety that has settled like a shroud on the Alpine Republic since early October elections left neither the Social Democrats nor the People's Party--the two parties that have ruled Austria since the 1940s--with a clear majority. For four months the country of eight million has been limping along under a caretaker government while the mainstream parties quarreled over how to divide the spoils. Disgust at their failure drove still more Austrians into Haider's camp. Piotr Dobrovolski, foreign policy editor of Austria's weekly magazine Format, said a desire for change among many voters has become overwhelming. "I am certain that Austrians really want someone like Haider at the top," he said. "Now they're finally about to have him, and it will be up to them to decide what to do."

Austria's President, Thomas Klestil, said last Friday he will wait several more days before formally asking the conservative and Freedom parties to form a government. But if the two sides agree on the principles, Klestil's hand will be forced. Both have already shown a talent for overcoming seemingly insuperable differences. Promises by Haider to introduce a flat tax while boosting social spending were abandoned as unworkable, as economists had pointed out. A conservative commitment to raise the pension age, a major sticking point in talks with the Social Democrats, has also been softened to avoid offending Haider's elderly constituency.

In an apparent effort to assuage the international outcry, Haider said that he himself will stay out of government and allow other members of his party to divide up cabinet posts with the conservatives. To avoid upsetting E.U. partners, key foreign policy slots will go to the politically more acceptable People's Party. Conservative leader Wolfgang Schssel, who will be Chancellor if talks succeed, has already taken the offensive, insisting that the new government will not stray from E.U. commitments. "Austria must say yes to Europe, yes to the euro, yes to E.U. enlargement," he told worried European Council members in Strasbourg.

But even if Haider is not in Vienna he will still hold considerable sway over the cabinet. What this will mean for Austria is unclear. With a projected budget deficit of 2.6% of GDP, the highest in the E.U., any new government will face a grueling period of budget cuts and public sector layoffs. Disaffected trade unions could stir up more trouble. Haider so far has not offered any meaningful solutions to these problems. His recurrent theme of "over-foreignization"--a term invented by Hitler's National Socialists--is a cynical fabrication: unemployment in Austria is at record lows.

In October, liberal Austrians greeted Haider's electoral success with alarm. More than 30,000 took to Vienna's otherwise staid and stately streets carrying candles, hoisting placards and deriding the populists' views. More recently, commentators have split between exclamations at Haider's ascendancy and disgust at the failure of Austria's old coalition partners to fashion an alternative. "Now Haider is coming," screamed News, a weekly magazine. "Haider's Hour," trumpeted Format magazine, with a picture of a relaxed-looking Haider in an open-necked shirt, flanked by photo-doctored shots of his battered and bruised rivals. Increasingly, Austrians seem to be resigning themselves to the idea of Haider in government. Lamented Helena Lederer, a secretary in Vienna: "This is not what we would have hoped for."

Yet everyone from the President on down insists that Haider's policies have been oversimplified by the world press. "Unlike France, Italy and Germany, we don't have a real neo-Nazi party in this country," says Livia Klingl, foreign editor of the daily Kurier. "Some people undoubtedly voted for Haider because they sympathize with Nazism, but many did so because they were sick and tired of the socialists and the conservatives." Among voters, Haider draws not just on blue-collar workers and the elderly, but also on twentysomethings. In the last election, he nabbed 35% of the 19-29-year-olds against 25% for the socialists. "The party attracts people who are afraid of change--of globalization and the Internet," says Klingl.

Others say Haider's charisma and political shrewdness alone explain the party's success. Without him, says Vienna-based author and political commentator Paul Lendvai, the movement would collapse. Paris-based political scientist Jean-Yves Camus says a Haider-led government may be the only way to convince Austrians that "he is not the answer." In the meantime, as was the case during the controversy over Kurt Waldheim's wartime past, the international outcry over Haider's ascendancy will probably only serve to bolster his public support.

With reporting by Dejan Anastasijevic and Angela Leuker/Vienna, Nicholas Le Quesne/Paris and Ursula Sautter/Bonn