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To describe the Austrian Freedom Party as "right wing" is problem–
atic, since it garnered more blue-collar votes than the Social Democrats
during the last elections. That the Freedom Party does not have a clear
operational program helps put it beyond the historic left-right divide.
Even its stance on essential issues like the unequal distribution of wealth
and income is not clear, since the party is not united by a concrete polit–
ical program.
It
is united by its leader. To Haider, concrete programs
would be of no use, as they would only limit his potential following. For
instance, calling for a redistribution of wealth and income would alien–
ate the richer amongst his adherents.
Instead of specific programs, Haider has provided continuous move–
ment, permanent entertainment, and powerful emotions. His party's
natural targets are "small minorities of outsiders" and "vicious ene–
mies." Critical intellectuals are one such group; the politicians of the vil–
ified old "system" are another.
The lack of a clear program is paralleled by the lack of internal party
democracy. Haider can do as he pleases. For example, when he decided
to get rid of the entire party leadership in one of the nine Austrian states,
he simply dismissed them. And he could change the party's positions on
such fundamental issues as membership in the European Union without
being questioned. Once the most ardent partisan of this membership, he
has since become its most vociferous critic.
Of course, a party that is so nondemocratic by necessity raises ques–
tions as to whether it can and will sustain and strengthen the democ–
ratic state. Having gained cohesion from mobilizing against minorities,
it cannot be expected to effectively safeguard the respect for such
minorities.
Haider maintains that he is no neo-Nazi. And in many respects that
is evident: no jackboots, no black or brown shirts, no overtly racist dis–
course, no military-style mass gatherings. Instead, he projects a mod–
ern style. He is a fashionable young man in designer jeans who drives
a Porsche-ever ready for a quotable utterance and for the gaze of tele–
vision.
Neither is there a direct repeat of Nazi ideology. No openly anti–
Semitic remarks have been registered. And aside from a few lapses,
Haider has taken great care to avoid anything that might bring him into
conflict with Austrian laws that sanction "Wiederbetatigung," that is,
the resurrection of Nazi programs.
But on a deeper level, there is a continuity: in the wholesale rejection
of the existing political system as inherently rotten and moribund, in the
denunciation of political parties as self-serving and illegitimate, in the
