Sir , - I wish to draw attention to a number of facts which may give your readers a more balanced view of the situation in Austria than Patrick Smyth's European Diary (The Irish Times, February 8th).
1. After the recent election, in which Jorg Haider's Freedom Party polled 27 per cent, it became clear that there was no possibility of forming a majority Government without this party. The only alternative left to the Austrian president was to call new elections. As in that case Haider - partly because of the disgust felt by many Austrians at the interference in a democratic process by other countries - would then have received even more votes, the establishment of a coalition with the conservative People's Party was the lesser of two evils .
2. Haider is an out-and-out populist who continually changes his tune in his search for power . Despite his various idiotic utterances he is, as confirmed by no less than Simon Wiesenthal, not an anti-Semitic Nazi. To attribute his present power base to the far right is a mistake. His main support in the recent elections came from the left, as 47 per cent of Austria's workers who normally vote Socialist voted for him on this occasion . Most of the rest of the votes came from successful under-25-year-olds eager to see the country run more efficiently. There is, of course, also a group of ageing, exNazi, right-wing incorrigibles, who were picked up in prior years. 3. Most people who voted for Haider did so not out of any enthusiasm for fascism of one shade or another, but because they were fed up with well-nigh 50 years of coalition between the Conservatives and the Social Democrats which, in the nature of things, led to corruption in the sharing out of state and semi-state jobs, as well as many other deficiencies. So far Haider has had an easy passage criticising matters from the outside. It is quite likely that his new, inexperienced Ministers, who give the impression of being over-grown students, will soon find out what it's like to carry responsibility . There is also the likelihood that Haider will, as usual, open his mouth too wide and that his party, which has no real policy, will be shown up for what it is and will go into decline .
4. In recent years, little Austria has integrated more than 500,000 refugees within its borders - a fabulous achievement. It is ridiculous for Patrick Smyth to state that Austria must prove its humanitarian credentials to, of all organisations, NATO! It wasn't Austria which dropped cluster bombs on Belgrade. 5. Austria is one of the most stable democratic countries in the world with an excellent social policy, extremely low unemployment and zero labour unrest . The counter-productive interference by the EU in the internal democratic process of a small country which has done absolutely nothing to deserve the current opprobrium is surely a great setback for the EU, which will have difficulty in recovering from it. - Yours, etc.,
Dr O. Glaser, Thalassa, Baily, Co Dublin.