The new government has been met with protests by youth, working people, and others opposed to the anti-immigrant, racist, and pro-Nazi stands of the Freedom Party. Haider himself lives on a 3,800-acre estate seized by the Nazis from a Jewish family forced to flee during World War II.

European imperialist powers have also criticized the Austrian government for its inclusion of the Freedom Party in the coalition, imposing some diplomatic sanctions on the country.

Haider resigned after leaders of the People's Party criticized his statement that the single European currency, the euro, was a "miscarriage."

At a rally in Ried March 8, Haider made a further move to embarrass People's Party leader and Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel. Haider took aim at the French government, which has been in the forefront of protests by European powers against the coalition. "Austria does not need a 21st-century pocket-sized Napoleon" like the president of France, Jacques Chirac, he said. "He should realize that his pointed finger has the moral quality of Pinocchio." Haider also attacked Austrian president Thomas Klestil for criticizing the new government, describing him as a "doubting Thomas."

Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany said February 18 that the isolation of the government in Vienna is about a principle. Reflecting the European Union's position, Portuguese prime minister António Guterres said, "For the moment our position remains the same. The key question is not the personality of Haider. It is the nature of his party."

An editorial in the March 1 Financial Times cautioned that "EU member states have got themselves into a political corner with their precipitate action. They are in a danger of making Mr. Haider more popular in Austria, by demonizing him. But they have embarked on a strategy without an escape route, short of the collapse of the Austrian government. There seems little prospects of that happening in the near future." The paper noted Haider "remains very much in control of his party," and is positioning "himself to run for chancellor in the future."

Jeanne Kirkpatrick, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, wrote in an opinion column that the stance of the EU members meant "Europe affirmed under undemocratic duress a denial of a country's right to choose its own government."

The attacks by the European imperialist powers have so far given Haider the opportunity to gain a hearing as the defender of the "Austrian nation" and "democracy."

Haider's resignation means that he can take a distance from austerity measures being discussed in the government. These range from budget cuts to the abolition of the popular anonymous savings passbooks, which can be used to avoid taxes. Karl-Heinz Grasser, the national finance minister and a protégé of Haider, has vowed to eliminate about 9,000 state jobs, sell off state industries to capitalist concerns, raise the retirement age, and reduce pensions for early retirees in order to bring down the budget deficit.

The new leader of the Freedom Party is Susanne Riess-Passer, the vice chancellor of Austria and Haider's former press spokesperson. "We will continue to work as a team and operate as a political partnership," she said of Haider. "It would not be very clever of me to do without someone with his political experience."

The Freedom Party is demanding compensation for property lost by ethnic Germans following World War II in what is now Slovenia and the Czech Republic. This has upset plans for eastward expansion of the EU, and has worried the governments in the Czech Republic and Slovenia that this issue could complicate or slow their negotiations over EU membership.

After World War II, nearly 3 million Germans in Czechoslovakia, who were viewed as collaborators with the Nazis, were expelled and their property confiscated. They were also deliberately excluded from Czech compensation schemes. In Slovenia, the property of the capitalists, many of whom were Germans, was confiscated after 1945 through a socialist revolution.

Birgitta Isacsson is a member of the Metal Workers Union in Sweden.  
 
 
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