Austria voted comfortably but not overwhelmingly in favour of joining the European Union in the referendum of June 1994. On a vote of more than 80 per cent of the electorate, two thirds supported membership, in spite of strong reservations about the germs for environmental protection and heavy goods traffic across the Alps and concern about neutrality. These are still sensitive issues in Austria's domestic politics, but the outcome of the European Parliament election at the weekend, in which the far right, led by the dynamic Dr Joerg Haider, made significant gains is not entirely due to an increase in Euro scepticism.
Dr Haider's steady rise since the moderate, pro European section of the Freedom Party (FPO) which he now leads, hived itself off in protest at his provocative use of immigration as an issue, has coincided with growing disillusionment with the narrow corporatism of Austrian society and the leadership of the main political parties. He is relatively young and personable, and he has cultivated a reputation for omniscience about the covert activities of the establishment, aided by secret admirers in the civil service, which gives him authority even among voters who do not agree with his extreme nationalism and his dubious links with Nazi ideology.
If the 27.6 per cent (on a turn out of 68 per cent) gained by the FPO on Sunday were repeated in a national election, the effects for Austria and the EU would be far reaching and serious. The dominant political position of the major partner in the governing coalition, the Socialist Party (SPO), has been dealt a body blow with a drop of nearly 9 per cent in its share of the popular vote compared with the national election nearly a year ago. The party has borne the brunt of working class hostility to the spending cuts designed to meet EMU criteria, and has lost votes to the FPO in what will inevitably be seen as a drift to right wing radicalism reminiscent of the 1930s.
Ironically, the election in December 1995 was precipitated by a dispute between the coalition partners over reducing the budget deficit, which the SPO wanted to achieve by raising taxes while its junior ally, the Austrian People's Party (OVP), advocated cutting expenditure. On that occasion, the SPO increased its share of the vote and the OVP lost support (as did Dr Haider). On Sunday, the People's Party, still in coalition with the Socialists, strengthened its position, and is now, by a narrow margin, ahead of the other two parties. Its leader, the vice chancellor Dr Wolfgang Schussel, could give Dr Haider his chance to enter government if the present coalition were to fall.
For the moment, the Chancellor, Dr Franz Vranitzky, may be tempted to regard the result as an interim judgment on Austria's membership of the EU, when unemployment is growing and no obvious benefits have been delivered. It is clearly a time of great fluidity in Austrian politics in which a number of divergent trends are involved, raising justifiable, anxiety in other EU member states. Sweden and Finland, still to elect members of the European Parliament, will give a better idea of attitudes among new members to EU issues. Austria has Dr Haider, and that's another and a much more perturbing story.