'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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Due to the country's former political and social `hyper-stability' the new situation came as a shock, since what has effectively been normalized within Austria-in particular Haider's and his party's more than 'ambivalent' relation to National Socialism-is still considered disqualifying outside of Austria. In turn, the strong external reaction led to an internal polarisation which is a completely new experience for a country used to consensus and compromise. On the 4th of February 2000, the new government had to escape demonstrators and could only be sworn in after it had reached the presidential residence through a secret underground tunnel. It became evident that a rift cut through society when later that evening demonstrations escalated into some smaller riots in the streets. In turn, the new government started an unprecedented nationalist campaign against unpatriotic traitors. The parliamentary opposition of Social Democrats and Greens was successfully denounced as siding with the external enemy, voices speaking out in favour of the diplomatic measures were effectively silenced by the mass media.

Ironically enough, the crisis resulted in the revitalisation of social movements. A new political militancy can be observed in weekly demonstrations, and independent groups like `Demokratische Offensive' emerged that were organizing a broad alliance between a freshly politicised youth, liberal Catholics, Greens, Social Democrats, union members and the radical Left (including Communists, Trotskyites, anarchists, feminists, gay activists, antiracist networks, migrant organisations, etc.). All these diverse groups are united against a single enemy: the coalition between OVP and FPO. On the 19th of February 250,000 met on Vienna's Heldenplatz in order to demonstrate against racism in government.4

Anti-Capitalism from the Right?

Now, it is obvious that Austria's political system has been turned upside down. And there is no doubt either that thirteen years of grand coalition had contributed to the rise of the extreme right. It is what the political philosopher Chantal Mouffe calls the `consensus at the centre' type politics that leads to the blurring of the left/right divide and, as a consequence, to the rise of extreme right-wing parties. Their rise in France and Austria, for instance, has to be understood, according to Mouffe, `in the context of the "consensus at the centre" type of politics that has resulted in these particular countries from the growing ideological convergence between the main governing parties'. Both the National Front in France and the Freedom Party in Austria formulate something like a popular will vis-A-vis the power block: `Thanks to a skilful populist rhetoric, they have been able to articulate many demands of the ordinary people, scorned as retrograde by the modernising elites, and they are trying to present themselves as the only guarantors of the sovereignty of the people' (1998, 15).

In doing so, they appear as the only authentic anti-establishment forces. However, in the Austrian case one would have to specify that, according to what has been said about the `third camp; the anti-establishment rhetoric is articulated by the Freedom Party from within the establishment. The Freedom Party has never been a complete outcast. This constituted a strategic advantage for the FPO: even as they were presenting themselves as anti-establishment force and a challenge to the dominant consensus, they could start from the position of a party already established within the political spectrum. When Haider took hold of the party in 1986, the FPO was still in government. Thus, starting from a legitimate position it was possible, for instance, to retain full access to the media even after moving the party to the Right. In contrast to Le Pen, Haider, as a politician, is entirely integrated in the political class.