- Austria's centre-right government is bracing itself for
internal revolt and destabilisation efforts following the return to the
political limelight of Jörg Haider, the extreme rightwing populist
whose triumph in a provincial election last weekend has stunned the Viennese
political elite.
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- Mr Haider and his Freedom party have been in decline
over the past four years since Brussels slapped unprecedented sanctions
on Austria because it deemed Mr Haider unfit to take part in national government.
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- But on Sunday in his power base of Carinthia, a southern
province bordering Italy, Mr Haider came back from the political dead,
confounding the pollsters who persistently predicted his defeat and dealing
a blow to the national government of Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel.
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- "It's a great feeling to be back," said Mr
Haider in an interview published yesterday. "This is the climax of
my political career."
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- Writing in Kronenzeitung, the bestselling tabloid, the
commentator Günther Nenning declared: "Haider's glorious return
can't be prevented after this staggering victory. Jörg has shown again
what he's best at. He will make life harder for Schüssel."
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- The rightwinger took 42.5% of the vote in Carinthia in
what was formally a local parliamentary election, but in effect a plebiscite
on Mr Haider.
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- It was his best-ever performance despite the consensus
view that he had peaked when his party took 27% in national elections in
2000, only to decline steeply in the years since because of the mercurial
leader's antics.
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- Two years ago he brought down the Schüssel government
and forced new elections, while in the past year he has been scathing about
President George Bush and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany and
travelled to Baghdad before the war to give Saddam Hussein friendly greetings
"from Austria".
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- Chancellor Schüssel's Christian democratic People's
party slumped to its worst-ever result in Carinthia, forfeiting almost
half of its support from five years ago. In Salzburg province it came second
to the Social Democrats.
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- The result is that Mr Haider is reconfirmed as the governor
of Carinthia, a mandate he is expected to exploit to make greater mischief
at the national level.
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- The executive of the People's party is to meet this morning
in Vienna to mull over the impact, with senior figures in the party berating
the chancellor for lacklustre leadership and flawed policies.
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- While Mr Haider said yesterday that he would remain in
Carinthia as governor for the next five years and then retire at the age
of 59, there are widespread expectations in Vienna that he will seek to
resume the national leadership of the Freedom party at a party congress
in the autumn. He retreated to Carinthia and surrendered the party leadership
following the 2000 debacle.
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- Mr Haider promptly served notice after his triumph that
he would direct his fire at the "negative consequences of EU expansion",
suggesting that he will toughen his anti-immigrant rhetoric as Austria's
central European neighbours come into the EU in May.
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/farright/story/0,11981,1165829,00.html
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