Austria owes the success of its postwar political balancing act, Proporz, to a happy band of anonymous voters who sportingly cast their ballots for a Socialist for the presidency, though they return the conservative People's Party in general elections. As a result, since the war Austria has had a Socialist President to offset the conservative Chancellors who headed its coalitions.
This year it looked as if Proporz might be upset. The conservative presidential candidate, suave ex-Chancellor Dr. Alfons Gorbach, 66, was a nationally known politician as well as a World War I...
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