NOWOTNY
413
Because the Austrian president Thomas Klestil customarily asks the
leader of the strongest party to form the new government, he
approached Victor Klima, chairman of the Social Democrats, to start
negotiations with the People's Party to form a new coalition govern–
ment. A coalition between the Social Democrats and the Freedom Party
was never on the agenda, due to mutual hostility and to irreconcilable
differences. In its electoral campaign, the spa once more had presented
itself as the only major political force to prevent the FPO from entering
government.
Wolfgang Schuessel did not seriously pursue this option of once again
sharing power with the SPO, since this constellation had brought his
party into a continuous decline in the 1960s, when it still had an
absolute majority. Now, its share of the votes has been reduced to a
mere 27 percent. Thus it was inevitable, even though president Klestil
and a majority of voters ardently wished for a renewal of the old coali–
tion, that this initiative would fail.
The president still sought alternatives to the looming coalition
between the two right-wing parties. He instructed Victor Klima to inves–
tigate the possibilities of a minority SPO government the other three
parties would tolerate. But in the meantime, the two right-wing parties
had started negotiations of their own, and did so without request by the
president; their coalition government was sworn in on February 4. The
president could not, or would not disguise his distrust and disapproval.
The international reaction soon followed, which should not have come
as a surprise since already the fourteen other members of the European
Union, particularly the French, had been warning them. The first clear
warnings began in October of 1999 at the EU summit in Tampere, then
in November at the oseE summit in Istanbul, and once again in
December at the EU summit in Helsinki.
On January 3
I,
these warnings were made public when, on behalf of
the heads of governments, the Portuguese EU president spelled out a
number of sanctions that would hit Austria if the Freedom Party were
to participate in a government: bilateral political contacts would stop,
Austrian ambassadors would be received only at a working level, and
Austrian candidates for international positions would not be supported.
But, this explicit warning was not heeded either. On February
I,
2000,
Wolfgang Schuessel became chancellor, and power was evenly distrib–
uted between the OVP and the FPO, with the young FPO minister,
Heinz Grasser, appointed as the key minister of finance.
Therefore, the EU sanctions were put into effect. On February 29,
]org Haider resigned as leader of the Freedom Party, not because of the
