Jörg Haider: An Austrian David Duke?

Jörg Haider, 49-year-old leader of the Austrian right- wing Freedom Party (FPÖ), is on his way to becoming one of the most powerful political leaders in the Alpine State. In the latest general elections (held on October 3, 1999) he and his party gained 27% of the votes. Thus, the FPÖ is now the second strongest party in Austria’s political spectrum. It doesn’t matter if Haider’s party will be part of the government or part of the opposition (negotiations for the formation of the government are currently in progress). At the very least, the FPÖ will cast the swing vote.

To his supporters, Haider seems to offer a fresh alternative to the two established parties. However, his campaign was based on the "old-school" issues of fear and security: job security, social welfare benefits, and a stop to immigration. In addition, he claims he can bring a fresh political style into Austrian politics, promising elimination of corruption and abuse of the welfare state. The image of "freshness" is enhanced by the fact that Haider is extremely professional in his use and manipulation of the media - especially as regards his recent inflammatory statements about immigrants and his startling references to National Socialism. Here are some samples:

"An orderly employment policy was carried out in the Third Reich, which the government in Vienna cannot manage."
"We’ve got the people from the former Yugoslavia who are burglary experts. We’ve got the Turks who are superbly organized in the heroin trade. And we’ve got the Russians who are experts in blackmail mugging."
"[...] we have to stop immigration until unemployment is reduced to under 5%." (Haider stated this in the 1994 election campaign, when the official unemployment rate was at 4.4%).

Haider referred to Mauthausen concentration camp as a "punishment camp," which implied that people were interned there for criminal activity only, and not their ethnicity. He made the statement just prior to the 50th anniversary of the camp’s liberation; and his FPÖ was the only major party that did not participate in the commemorative event.

Haider addressed a reunion of Waffen-SS veterans in 1996, referring to them as "decent people who have character and who have stuck to their beliefs through the strongest headwinds and who have remained true to their convictions to this day."

The situation is strange: The mission of our Gedenkdienst is that Austria has changed; that it is no longer indifferent to its Nazi past; and that it is willing to take responsibility for its role during World War II. Now we as Gedenkdienst interns find ourselves serving a country in which 27% of the population voted for a known right-wing politician.

We do not want to make predictions about the future. Austria still is a democratic country; and we have to see how the negotiations over the composition of the government will turn out, as well as how the other political parties will act. We are very concerned about the way in which politicians like Jörg Haider become popular figures within Austrian society. We cannot accept his efforts to achieve power by frightening the voters, by dehumanizing non-Austrians, refugees and immigrants, and by telling the Austrian people over and again that foreigners "steal our jobs," "destroy our culture and values" and are "taking over the country."

When you hear such slogans long enough, some people accept them as truth. Perhaps you may say that we are alarmists - too serious about these issues - but history teaches us that there is a need to stand up and speak out against Haider’s statements before his words turn into national beliefs.

We will be watching closely.

Andreas Feuerstein & Heinz Bösch
Austrian Gedenkdienst Interns