AUSTRIAS NEW H****R!
Nigel Jones explains how Vienna's populist demagogue could seize power in Germany
AUSTRIA, the state tourist board will tell You 1st anders' different'). Although the Alpine wunderland only features on the radar of the average Briton for the fort- night of skiing and gliihwein they take each February, media attention briefly bleeped earlier this month when the Freedom party of Jorg Haider, far and away Europe's most successful 'far-right' politician, secured almost 30 per cent of the popular vote and looked certain to enter or destroy the ruling coalition.
Some commentators launched into com- parisons with the rise of Hitler, apparently struck by the spooky coincidence that both men are Austrian, and have six-letter names beginning with 'H' and ending with 'r'. There are parallels to be drawn, but let us dispose of the more facile similarities. Austria, unlike Weimar Germany, is not in economic meltdown. On the contrary, it is cosily, smugly prosperous, the third richest country in the Continent, with almost full eniPloyment, crime-free streets, an effi- cient public-transport system and an Obsessively healthy physical environment.
What malicious tic, therefore, has bur- rowed into the skin of the Austrian elec- torate and turned them away from their bovine contentment and made them vote in ever-greater numbers for an unscrupulous demagogue? One obvious answer is the bone-crushingly boring nature of their soci- ety. Austria swaddles its citizens in cradle- to-the-grave security until they stifle. The term 'nanny state' could almost have been invented for a country where the state holds a monopoly or stranglehold over oil, banking, tobacco, rail and air transport and, not least, broadcasting. Socialism may he a dirty word in the old Habsburg empire; the bracing winds of deregulation and liberty blow chilly through Prague, Budapest, Zagreb, even Moscow, but in Vienna the state still reigns supreme. The system of state patronage has been presided over since the end of the Allied occupation in 1955, by Tweedledum (the Social Democrats) and Tweedledee (the Christian Democrats, or 'People's party') Who carved up the cake of corruption between them. In a delicate balancing act, known as 'proporz' ('proportionality'), any job of importance in the obese state appara- tus is apportioned to a party hack who is either a 'red' (socialist) or a 'black' (conser- vative). To refine the system further, where a 'red' rules the roost (as in the foreign sec- tion of the state broadcasting corporation where I worked from 1991 until 1995), his deputy is a 'black' — and vice versa. This system has honourable roots: it was ham- mered out in Hitler's concentration camps, where the incarcerated socialist and conser- vative leaders agreed that their strife had undermined Austria between the wars and let Hitler in through the back door. In future, they vowed, consensus was the way ahead. These good intentions ossified until they became back-scratching cronyism of the worst sort.
In such an artificial hothouse, democracy and debate withered on the vine. Austria's complacent political establishment virtually willed Haider into existence and put the bricks into his hands to shatter their sys- tem. He arrived on the scene in 1986 when he took over the small Freedom party, a moribund outfit whose function had been to act as the tennis ball between the rackets of the 'reds' and 'blacks'.
A little inquiry would have told interest- ed observers where Haider was coming from: his father was a pre-Anschluss Nazi, his mother a keen member of Hitler's 'League of German Girls'. Haider's coun- try estate, Barcntal, originally belonged to Jews forced to flee the Holocaust and sell at Nazi-set prices. Now, none of us are to blame for our parents' sins, but Haider's actions revealed his background.
He lost no time in purging his party of liberals, and stocking its upper ranks with young men personally loyal to him; to the extent that it became known as the 'Buberl-
'It's the only good thing to come out of Europe.' partei' ('Lad's party') and there were dark rumours of Portillo-like revelations. But what won him the votes were his relentless attacks on what he called 'the old parties'; his xenophobic assaults on the 'threat' posed by the half-million foreigners among the eight million Austrians; and the undoubted appeal of his youthful looks, and outdoor lifestyle of skiing, bungee- jumping and bear-feeding.
Steadily, his party's vote mounted from single figures to 18 per cent in 1992. In the mid-Nineties, as the fall of the Iron Curtain and the Yugoslavian war escalated the fear of the foreign 'peril', he was garnering 25 per cent of the vote, largely from the ex- socialist working-class disillusioned by the bourgeoisification of their party leaders. In this month's elections he got 27.2 per cent and finally shattered the increasingly strained red-black coalition.
The closer he has got to power, the more Haider has moderated his image. Long past are the embarrassing praise for Hitler's employment policies; the charac- terisation of concentration camps as deten- tion units; the secret appearance at rallies of Waffen SS veterans. These days he likes to compare himself to Tony Blair, and packages his party as 'the Third Way'. But a fascist remains a fascist, even if he does wear an Armani suit.
The question for the rest of Europe is: what will it do about the Haider phe- nomenon. So far, Europe's leaders have emulated their Austrian counterparts in hoping he will just go away. But he won't. Time after time he has been written off, and we have been told he has peaked, but each time he has bounced back stronger than ever. He appeals to the sour-gherkin side of the Austrian people that is the reverse of their creamy, effervescent 'charm'. He is the sultan of schadenfreude, the nasty but insistent voice of niggling hatred and envy. This has put him in a position where he will be either king-maker or the next chancellor.
To dismiss this election — as a singularly complacent Guardian editorial did last week — as a mere blip on Europe's smooth progress towards a social democratic par- adise, would be unwise. I venture a predic- tion: the forces that have brought Haider within reach of power in Vienna are also astir in Austria's giant neighbour, Ger- many. The German political establishment is scarcely more popular with its voters than in Austria. But the German far-right lacks a charismatic leader. Already, Haider has begun to make trips to Bavaria to address meetings of like-minded Germans, wlio have given him an ecstatic reception.
Haider would not be the calculating politi- cian he is if the thought 'Today Vienna, tomorrow Berlin' had not entered that handsome head. An Anschluss in reverse? Stranger things have happened.
Nigel Jones is assistant editor of History Today.
Previous page
