The right-wing extremist FPOE (Freiheitliche Partei Oesterreichs - Austrian Freedom Party) under Joerg Haider gained 27% of the votes at the Austrian national elections on October 3rd 1999. Now the FPOE is the second strongest party in Austria (after the SPOE, the social democrats), in some regions it is even the strongest.
These elections were won with the help of racist paroles against a foreign infiltration. The strongest right-wing extremist party in Europe the FPOE - was not voted for in spite of their racism, but because of it. With the help of racism, antisemitism, sexism and agitation against social parasites you can always win elections in Austria.

But the right-wing extremist, nationalist and racist potential among the population is even bigger. There are also those who voted for the Social Democrats only because of minister of inner affairs Schloegls racist policy of deportation of refugees. It was no coincidence that opinion polls and European elections showed better results for the SPOE after the accidental killing of the Nigerian refugee Marcus Omofuma in may. Minister Schloegl - who claimed not to be responsible and did not resign like his Belgian college did in a similar case became Austria's most popular politician after the incident. The population is also thankful to Schloegl and the SPOE for Austria's important role at closing down the frontiers of the fortress Europe.
The FPOE has been forcing the government (a coalition between SPOE and OEVP, Oesterreichische Volkspartei the conservative Austrian Peoples Party) to execute their own racist paroles for years. The government willingly does so - allegedly to prevent Haiders success. The recent elections have proven once more that this strategy does not work. The governments racist politics only drives the whole political spectrum even more to the right.
But we should not forget that the situation could still be worse. The FPOE participating in a government would be worse. Even a lot more racist actions would be popular among the Austrians.

This is also where the main problem is: The overwhelming majority of the Austrian population is racist, nationalistic and antisemitic, and is willing to join every slanderous attack. Authoritarian mentality is the usual, not the exception.
And there are surely historical continuities. National Socialist ways of thinking are still present among the Austrian population. Those Austrians, who were enthusiastic about the National Socialist takeover in Austria in 1938, suddenly saw themselves as Hitler's first victims, when the German Reich was militarily beaten in 1945. This strategy of victimizing also helped the second republic of Austria to get away with it, to escape the responsibility for actively participating in the cruelties of the holocaust.
When Austria was part of Nazi-Germany, there was little resistance and the regime had to be beaten by the armies of the allies. The ideology did not vanish. After a very short and superficial period of de-nazification the same old NS-functionaries sat in their seats again. A re-education of the population did not take place, neither did a large-scale voluntary discussion of history.

So racism and antisemitism boomed also after 1945. All of the parties (social democrats, conservatives and communists) were already striving for the votes of (de-nazified) Nazis in 1949, when they all decided to readmit them for elections. At the same time the VdU (Verband der Unabho/oongigen association of the independent) was founded, so the old nazis had their own party again. The FPOE derived from the right wing of the VdU, which had split up in 1956. Now, 40 years later, this FPOE is most successful under its new leader Joerg Haider.
All of these years there has been a good relationship between SPOE, OEVP and FPOE. In 1970 the SPOE even constituted a minority-party government with the support of the FPOE (Haider was not yet head of the party then). And also later the social democrats were in good contact with the FPOE. After the chief of the Jewish documentation archive of Vienna Simon Wiesenthal, who helped to find nazi war criminals like Adolf Eichmann, informed the public that the then FPOE-chairman Friedrich Peter had formerly been a member of the SS, SPOE-chancellor Bruno Kreisky thought it necessary to come to Peters defense and to insult Wiesenthal using antisemitic stereotypes. In 1983, when the FPOE was in a relatively liberal phase under Norbert Steger, the SPOE even made a coalition with FPOE but this was all over when Haider came to power in 1986 by a party-internal putsch. The new leader led the party from success to success with massive propaganda against foreigners. The liberal intermezzo under Steger had almost cost the FPOE their existence in parliament, but the offensive racism under Haider made them the second biggest party in the country.

But Nazi-ideology not only lived on in the FPOE. Of all the (re-)organized (Neo-)nazis, the most important organization was the VAPO (Volkstreue ausserparlamentarische Opposition extra-parliamentary opposition, loyal to the (German) people (Volk)), who trained themselves militarily for a nationalistic putsch in the 80ies and were tolerated by many. The racist bombseries in the 90ies where 4 Roma were killed and other people were injured, was indeed an expression of open racism despite all the displayed shock. The moment Mr. Franz Fuchs was arrested as the bomb brain, the media and politicians began to depoliticalise the bombings. The single offender Fuchs is still portrayed as a psychopath without any ideological background.
Pro-German nationalist students associations could and can pursue their activities relatively undisturbed at the universities. Many of the FPOEs ideological cadre also Joerg Haider himself came and come from these groups. In 1965 the communist and resistance-fighter Ernst Kirchweger was killed by such a nationalistic student at a demonstration against the antisemitic university-professor Borodajkewycz in Vienna. Kirchweger was only the first political victim of the second Austrian republic.

Discussions about the NS-involvement of presidential candidate Kurt Waldheim in 1986 have once more made obvious, that antisemitism has not vanished in Austria. The majority of the Austrian population voted for Waldheim out of a feeling which can be described as now more than ever!. Criticism was met with antisemitic resentments.

The antisemitic and racist mood among the population is also nourished by the biggest daily newspaper Neue Kronenzeitung. This yellow paper, which has especially distinguished itself lately with attacks against Black people living in Austria, reaches 40% of the whole circulation of all Austrian daily newspapers which is a unique concentration of media in Europe.

All in all the ideology of a fascist worldview could be easily conveyed from one generation to the next. There only had to be someone who awakens and concentrates this ideology to create a mass movement again.

Haider is not a nazi. National socialism as such will not rise again, it is 60 years too late for that. But the FPOE is a party of democraticised and modernized fascism. Widespread right-wing exremist attitudes make it easy to believe that Haider is a democrat. Fascist, racist and antisemitic politics are in fact part of a parliamentary democracy. There is no need to abolish the parliamentary system for taking political measures that can be even more racist and authoritarian than those of the SPOE-OEVP-coalition. It will be hard for those who are the objects of his attacks: migrants, people out of work, and of course for those who want to stop him uncompromisingly.

The FPOEs success at the elections has already released the mob, which has been waiting for decades to strike again. Migrants are complaining about an increasing number of abuses and brutal attacks. And Ariel Muzicant, president of the Israelitic association, is complaining about a massive increase of attacks against Jews in Austria. The number of threatening letters has increased tenfold!
This antisemitism is being intensified by a number of Austrian media and politicians (of SPOE and OEVP): in their reactions to Israel's comments on the FPOE-success they argue with secondary antisemitism, which is distinguished by e.g. accusing Jews of not letting the past be past. Even the few liberal newspapers respond to the Israeli foreign ministers criticism with the advice that Israel should better look at itself. So you can probably imagine the positions in the pub or at other platforms of the soul of the Volk.

Conclusion: There is nothing which can be expected from this Austrian majority-population with its deep-rooted antisemitism and racism. Joerg Haiders democraticised and modernized fascism will not be destroyed by suddenly emerging antifascist masses they do not exist in Austria. That is why we appeal to the international public to take action against Austria and to fight racism and antisemitism wherever it occurs.

Arge Kriegsdienstverweigerung und Gewaltfreiheit - Autonome Uni-Antifa (AUA) - Basisgruppe WU - Bündnis Antinationaler Gruppen (BANG!) - Fachschaft Informatik - Grüne, Alternative und Linke an der TU-Wien (GRAL) - Ökologische Linke (ÖKOLI) - Rosa Antifa Wien (RAW)