Word: austrians
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...last week it brought him and his Freedom Party into a coalition government in Austria--and left the 14 other member countries of the European Union in a state of indignation. As Haider and his political partner, Wolfgang Schussel of the conservative People's Party, defied the wishes of Austrian President Thomas Klestil and signed their deal, the score was Demagoguery 1, Diplomacy...
...shocked to read your staff editorial "Austrian Isolation a Mistake" (Opinion, Feb. 8), in which you accuse the EU member states of a "reactionary frenzy" against the new government coalition between the Social Democratic Party and the Austrian Freedom Party (FP). Your argument leaves it unclear in which way the EU countries' decisions to "downgrade Austria's diplomatic status" could lead to a backlash strengthening the support for the FP. The EU's reaction has instead strengthened the backs of the thousands of Austrians marching in protest against the new government in Vienna. The fact that the two coalition parties...
This diplomatic downgrade furthermore does not imply complete isolation--a purely political measure is not an economic embargo. Neither does this mean that the other EU member states will cease to "attentively watch Austrian political developments"; a diplomatic downgrade does not imply averting one's eyes from the issue but rather is a signal of serious concern...
...admirable desire to maintain political stability and laudable effort to ensure that the atrocities of Europe's past aren't repeated does not annul the fact that the Austrian coalition parties were democratically elected and have yet to use any extra-democratic means in establishing their new government. Hence, to apply sanctions and politically isolate the nation before the coalition government has done anything tangibly wrong is to put the diplomatic cart before the horse and to undermine the very principles of democracy the E.U. seeks to uphold. Moreover, at the present time the E.U.'s actions are themselves...
Cutting diplomatic ties with and sanctioning Austria is thus nothing short of a hugely hypocritical mistake. If the E.U. has a genuine concern for the maintenance of Austrian democracy then it should attentively watch Austrian political developments and sustain close diplomatic ties so that, in the case that Haider ever tries to subvert democracy in the name of fascist governance, the E.U. still has political leverage with the Austrian government. Isolating Austria will only allow hatred and xenophobia to ferment and diminish the chances of diplomatically forestalling political crisis should the Austrian government ever actually turn to undemocratic practices...