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October 1, 1999/21 Tishri 5760, Vol. 52, No.5
Freedom Party growing in Austria
RUTH E. GRUBER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
VIENNA - A far-right political party with a xenophobic platform is poised to make big gains in next week's general elections in Austria - and could become the country's second biggest political force.
Once a pariah in national politics, the Freedom Party, led by populist firebrand Jorg Haider, 49, received 27.5 percent of the vote in regional elections in Vorarlberg on Sept. 19. This represented a leap of more than 9 percent over regional election results there five years ago and appeared to confirm public opinion polls that indicate the party has become Austria's second largest.
"It's like a turbocharger in the home stretch to parliamentary elections," said Peter Westenthaler, Freedom Party general secretary.
The party won 22 percent of the vote in Austria's last general elections in 1995. Nationwide polls earlier this month indicated that the party would win 28 percent to 29 percent in the elections on Oct. 3. That would put it well behind Chancellor Viktor Klima's Social Democratic Party, which is projected to win 35 percent to 38 percent of the vote - but well ahead of the conservative Peoples Party, with 23 percent to 24 percent. These two parties, which have dominated Austrian politics for half a century, ruled in a coalition in the outgoing government.
The election results could take Haider, the son of fervent Nazi supporters who repeatedly praised Hitler's regime in the past, closer to his goal of becoming chancellor of Austria. Haider has made it clear that if his party receives the second largest number of votes, he will push for its inclusion in a government coalition.
Observant members of Austria's 7,000 to 10,000 strong Jewish community may not be able to vote in the Oct. 3 election because it is scheduled on Simchat Torah. The Interior Ministry suggested that observant Jews could vote by absentee ballot two days before the election at the Austrian Embassy in nearby Slovakia. The Jewish community issued an indignant statement calling this solution "unacceptable."
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