Political extremism in Austria

Austrian political stage with rise of a new form of authoritarian right-wing populism in the 1980d-1990s faces a phenomenon of more that one country in Europe. Under Haider's leadership, the FPÖ moved to the far right, reflecting Haider's nationalist, anti-immigration, and anti-EU views. Haider especially used populism to advance his interests. Thanks to Jörg Haider from 1986 (when Haider became the FPÖ's chairman) the party's share in elections rose from 5% in the 1986 elections to almost 27% in 1999.

There are several examples when Haider demonstrated that he had skills and luck. In 1986 after scandal with Kurt Waldheim, implicit anti-semitism appeared everywhere in the Austrian media. These events allowed Jörg Haider to emerge as the undisputed spokesman for the right-wing FPÖ grassroots. Despite the majority of the party elite supported this opponent Steger, Haiders won in a leadership poll with frighteningly neo-Nazi overtones.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991 substantially increased the flows of migrants arriving in Austria. Then the collapse of the Iron Curtain exposed the huge contrast in economic expectations between Eastern and Western Europe. Working class, who was faced with rising job insecurity, did not like the prospect of huge waves of immigration. Haider used this fear and launched a series of viciously anti-immigrant campaigns, thus hi pleased the SPÖ’s core working class electorates.

It is impossible to define if he is far right extremist or populist, some call him ‘godfather of the extreme right’ while a leading journal Der Standard in December’95 labeled him ‘a completely normal Nazy boy’.

No single figure, certainly from the opposition, has dominated the post-war Austrian political scene to the same extend. After reading about “a political star” Jörg Haider in the reader I made a small research about his present post. At the moment he is Governor of Carinthia (a region on the south of Austria) and I think it would be interesting to meet this person one day at a student class to ask him some questions.

P.S. I might be sleeping now as I can here nightingale right now, although we have the last days of autumn.