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'Fourth Way' of the ultra right: Austria, Europe, and the end of neo-corporatism, The

Capital & Class, Spring 2001 by Marchart, Oliver

WHEN IN EARLY FEBRUARY 2000 Austria's conservative People's Party (OVP) announced that it would build a coalition with the ultra-right Freedom Party (FPO) shockwaves spread through the media worldwide. Undoubtedly, this constituted a historic event in the European political landscape. For the first time a party of the extreme xenophobic Right was allowed to enter government and as a result, for the first time in their history, the member states of the European Union decided to put one member state under diplomatic quarantine and to reduce bilateral relations to a technical level.1 Now, as the diplomatic boycott-the so-called `sanctions'-has been lifted it becomes clear that it has achieved the very opposite of what was intended. Contrary to widely circulated opinion, though, it was not the boycott itself which was unjustified but the lifting of the boycott. Questions of hypocrisy aside, in reality the boycott proved to be the first purely political decision taken by the EU: not the usual bureaucratic compromise solution but a decision over political principles by which a line of demarcation was drawn vis-A-vis ultra-right populism (Marchart 2000). For a few months it seemed that the EU-member states were not prepared to accept racist parties in government. Of course, this turned out to be a rather short-lived form of heroism when Austrian ministers threatened to use their power of veto at EU-conferences in order to fight the sanctions by any means.

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To resolve the problem, responsibility was delegated to three so-called `wise men' (two elder statesmen and one law professor) who were commissioned to file a report on the human rights situation in Austria as well as on the nature of the FPO. The political decision as to the European Union's relation towards ultraright populism was thereby transformed into a question of `wisdom' and individual judgement. As expected, the report did not find any severe infringement of human rights, at least nothing beyond the European average. Therefore, it fulfilled its role as a clearance certificate, and thus served well as pretext for lifting the diplomatic sanctions against Austria. Where the Freedom Party was concerned, apart from some apparently minor points of criticism, the report attested to its 'democratic' nature. By describing the FPO as `right-wing populist with radical elements'-a description applauded even by the FPO itself which accepted the qualifier populism as a name of honour for a party siding with `the people'-the radical nature of the FPO was effectively played down by the report and reduced to certain 'elements'. One day this report might be considered a historically unique document in being the first official clearance certificate for what might emerge in the future as the `Fourth Way': an alliance between conservative parties and ultra-right populism.

In this situation it is necessary to look back at the specifically Austrian pre-history of that coalition in order to understand in what way and to what extent the conditions that led to the integration of a party of the extreme Right into a European government are specific to Austria and to what extent they could proof to be a blueprint for developments on a European scale. Thus, the article seeks to analyse the historical background and the political reasons for the rise of Austria's extreme Right. An account of the national constellation which eventually brought Haider's FPO into government will be given.

The rise of the Austrian extreme Right

What are the factors that contributed to the amazing rise of Haider's Freedom Party in Austria? On the national level, the FPO is currently Europe's strongest party on the extreme Right. While the FPO got nearly 27 percent of the votes in the last general election in October 1999, the Vlaams Block in Belgium won 10 percent nationwide, France's Front National won 15 percent (but lost significance after it split), Fini's Alleanza Nazionale can expect 10 percent in the next Italian elections and Denmark's People's Party under Pia Kjarsgaard would get 16 percent according to the polls; it is only the Swiss 'Volkspartei' SVP under Christoph Blocher which comes close to Haider with 23 percent. At the peak of Haider's popularity polls predicted-in the event of new elections-around 33 percent for his Freedom Party, exactly a third of the electorate.

The extraordinary success of rightwing populism in a country with, by current European standards, a relatively low unemployment rate and high social security standards, indicates that it would be reductionist to explain Haider's rise with economic criteria alone (eg. the pauperisation of what Austrian mainstream political scientists would call `modernisation losers'-- Modernisierungsverlierer). Haider's disproportionate electoral success-- compared to other European leaders of the extreme Right-which eventually led his party into government, can only be explained if one takes into account political, ideological, structural as well as economic factors. Therefore, if one wishes to understand what's behind the news, it is necessary to have an understanding of the historical evolution of Austria's political system.

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'Fourth Way' of the ultra right: Austria, Europe, and the end of neo-corporatism, The

Capital & Class, Spring 2001 by Marchart, Oliver

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