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Austria Events of 1991-93
The trend toward the dissolution of the two-party system was
confirmed by the outcomes in four provincial elections held in
1991. The FPÖ increased its share of the vote in all four
elections, and in Styria and Upper Austria it tripled its vote to
15.4 and 17.7 percent, respectively. In Vienna the FPÖ displaced
the ÖVP as the second most powerful party in the provincial
legislature, a particularly embarrassing result for the ÖVP. The
ÖVP lost ground in all four elections, while the SPÖ lost seats
in three elections. With its showing in Vienna, the FPÖ became
the second strongest party in two of Austria's nine provinces,
having achieved the same status in Carinthia in 1989, also
displacing the ÖVP.
In June 1991, President Kurt Waldheim announced that he would
not seek reelection in 1992. ÖVP leaders were relieved that
Waldheim had decided to retire from politics because they feared
the eruption of another bitter controversy over his wartime
record if he had chosen to run. Waldheim became the first
incumbent Austrian president not to seek reelection. Initially,
the ÖVP and SPÖ looked into the possibility of nominating a joint
candidate for the 1992 election. However, the two parties were
unable to agree on a candidate, and in November 1991 they and the
FPÖ each announced separate candidates. The ÖVP selected Thomas
Klestil, a career diplomat and former ambassador to the United
States. The SPÖ candidate was Rudolf Streicher, head of the
Ministry for National Industry and Transportation. The FPÖ
candidate was Heide Schmidt, who was also third president of the
Nationalrat. The Green candidate was the scientist Robert Jungk.
No candidate was able to win an absolute majority in the
first balloting on April 26, 1992. Streicher polled 41 percent,
compared with Klestil's 37 percent, but far ahead of Schmidt's 16
percent and Jungk's 6 percent. In the run-off elections four
weeks later, when only the top two candidates were on the
ballots, Klestil scored an easy victory over Streicher with 57
percent of the total vote. Controversy about his opponent's war
record, a series of scandals connected to the SPÖ, and Klestil's
skill in dealing with the media contributed to his easy victory
in the second round of voting. Perhaps most important, however,
was his career as a diplomat abroad that had kept him out of
politics (although he was an ÖVP member) and made him seem well
suited for leading the country into the post-Cold War era.
The collapse of the Soviet empire and the former Yugoslavia
increased the number of foreigners coming to Austria. The influx
of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants posed a challenge to
Austrian authorities. In 1992 and 1993, new laws went into effect
that sought to reduce the number of those coming to the country
for asylum and to more strictly control the large foreign
community already present in Austria. The laws resulted both from
serious practical problems of caring for foreigners in need of
food and fears of many Austrians that their country was in danger
of Überfremdung, that is, being submerged by everincreasing waves of foreign immigrants. Some politicians, most
notably Haider, sought to profit politically from these fears.
In early 1993, a referendum sponsored by Haider was held to
determine popular support for further tightening the laws
regulating foreigners. More than 400,000 signatures were
collected, half of what Haider had sought but still a significant
response. Large counterdemonstrations were held to protest
Haider's suggested policies, but it was clear that Haider had
tapped into widespread fears and resentments. Haider's extremism
resulted in some FPÖ members leaving the party and forming their
own party, The Liberal Forum (Das Liberale Forum). Led by Heide
Schmidt, the FPÖ presidential candidate in 1992, the group won
three seats in the May 1993 Landtag election in Upper Austria.
Additional successes for the new party were its being recognized
both by the Nationalrat as a political party and by Liberal
International.
Apprehension about joining--or not joining--the European
Union
(EU--see Glossary)
was another force driving Austrian
politics. As the economy slumped and headed to an overall
negative growth rate for 1993, Haider modified his previous
endorsement of EU membership, sensing a chance to profit from
fears about what Austria's participation in a larger Europe might
bring. The ÖVP and SPÖ remained strongly in favor. After much
delay, Austria will join the European Economic Area
(EEA--see Glossary)
on January 1, 1994. The EEA will then consist of EU and
European Free Trade Association
(EFTA--see Glossary) countries,
with the exception of Switzerland, and will form a free-market
economy of sixteen nations and 380 million inhabitants.
Data as of December 1993
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