Riot police turned water cannon on demonstrators outside the offices of Dr Jorg Haider's Freedom Party in the centre of Vienna last night as Austria faced international isolation after President Thomas Klestil swore in a coalition including members of the far right party.
Anti-Haider groups cancelled a demonstration planned for today after the violent scenes, which were the worse seen in Austria in recent years. Demonstators complained that the police action was heavy-handed since only a small number of protesters behaved aggressively. The authorities blamed "organised anarchists from Germany" for the disturbances.
International reaction to the new government was swift. The US and Israel recalled their ambassadors, and Belgium cancelled a contract for armoured ambulances with an Austrian firm.
In a TV interview last night Dr Haider claimed that Austria's EU partners had made a "tactical error" in freezing bilateral relations with Vienna. He warned that Austria's support would be needed for any future EU measures regardless of the attitude of its partners.
Earlier President Klestil asked for tolerance. "The People's Party and the Freedom Party have a majority of seats in parliament. This must be respected in a democracy . . . I therefore ask all political forces in our country, all Austrian women and men, as well as our partners in the European Union and in the world to give the new federal government a chance and to judge it on its work," he said.
But as the new Chancellor, Dr Wolfgang Schussel of the conservative People's Party (OVP), held his first cabinet meeting, thousands of protesters, held in check by riot police, maintained a noisy presence outside, hurling eggs, fruit and plastic bottles each time a member of the new government came into view. Dr Schussel denied that his country was a pariah state and said a new Hitler was not on the rise.
