Right turn in Austria
Pfaff, William
er, in spite of understanding how wide there is no electricity to run them. reality as it is for most of the world, and the gulf was between me and the poor, I In America, where...
...to block the government coalition be- tongue that bring to mind the Nazi Where before I would shop as the poor tween Joerg Haider's right-wing Aus- rhetoric of the past...
...The Haider chronicles Now, however, I am forced by circumstances to be much clearer about my position here...
...Though his proposal was likely no more than a desperate blunder during a faltering campaign, Duhalde unwittingly hit upon a critical set of questions in the debt-relief debate...
...mocrats having failed to agree to form a a talented orator with demagogic skills...
...moved to a large house, we have a formi- ratic principle that the popular will, ex- Haider's policies bear the taint of dable collection of household helpers, and pressed in an election, deserves respect...
...I no longer keep mainstream conservatives, who for the litical figures elsewhere in the European up with the daily fluctuations of vegetable past thirteen years governed the country Union...
...First, Carlos Lozada the country in question must qualify for special World Bank loans targeted for extremely poor nations, usually with perDEBT RELIEF capita incomes of about $800 or less a year...
...Our lives where one can confidently expect that culpability stare me in the face every were so simple and pared down that it systems will function and the goods will day...
...The last-named led in October's elec- mon controls on immigration...
...D proposed that his country renegotiate its mas- Although more than three dozen nations are technically sive external debt, and even went so far as to request an au- considered HIPCs, through January 2000 only seven coundience with Pope John Paul lI to discuss debt forgiveness tries-Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guyana, Mali, for Argentina as part of the jubilee 2000 movement...
...He is My argument keeps breaking down...
...free, and the choices put before electhem try out a rightist coalition and see One might say that the United States is torate without limit...
...In India, there safe in the event of trouble...
...By © 2000, Los Angeles Times Syndicate...
...reality as it is for most of the world, and the gulf was between me and the poor, I In America, where it is possible to to judge ourselves and our role in the somehow believed our family would be live surrounded mainly by people who perpetuation of inequity...
...I buy in bulk now and get the vote in the last legislative election, on immigration are no more extreme annoyed, not stricken, when something marginally more than the vote given the than positions taken by mainstream poruns out unexpectedly...
...Rather than seek divinely inspired debt forgiveness, r Argentina clearly opted to keep faith with its creditors...
...We have cy but offends the fundamental democ- populist reaction of just this kind...
...Despite copious retractions and clarifications, Duhalde fell further in the polls and eventually lost in a t ti landslide...
...This blase attitude to the daily neces- tion, with 33.11 percent of the total...
...While sober analysis could R A L MIND persuade me that in the eyes of an angry revolutionary my life was not much dif- WILLIAM PFAFF ferent from a fat cat Republican's, on a day-to-day level I believed the difference was vast and this saved me from many RIGHT TURN IN AUSTRIA sleepless nights of anxiety...
...How poor and indebted must a nation be to qualify...
...Let citizenship...
...That nessman Christoph Blocher, whose nastaff taking care of both my home and corrupting situation, born of electoral tionalist and xenophobic party recently my office, I am more impatient when proportional representation, has for succeeded in Switzerland's national they slip up...
...In the past year, my husband he European Union's reac- tion...
...Moreover, it was the coali- Serious people in Vienna consider him States where time itself is money and tion the Austrian public had effectively an unstable and dangerous man...
...Haider is not a man any democrat and I have suddenly become wealthy...
...Now that I have ately between the ruling parties...
...His conduct as presdo, buying only enough for the moment trian Freedom party and the mainstream ident of the state of Carinthia, where he (one roll of toilet paper at a time, for ex- conservative People's party...
...gets and toys, I am more frustrated when bate and a real choice in national direc- Fourteen of the fifteen European Union Commonweal 8 February 25, 2000 governments have done an obvious justified...
...My complicity and tually thought about it much...
...the People's party and the Social De- political methods and ambitions...
...Second, the naHow poor is poor enough...
...main issues at stake are essentially do- acts can be proscribed and punished, One can sensibly argue that what Aus- mestic ones, concerning immigration and but the expression of opinion should be trian voters need is a dose of reality...
...xenophobia, and his speeches have regI, anyway, have simply stopped thinking Great pressure was placed on Austria ularly included ostensible slips of the about money as an obstacle in my life...
...Which countries are-or should be-eligible for relief...
...There is, in fact, a European conprices and couldn't say anymore how in coalition with the Social Democrats...
...And perhaps most important, who sets the standard...
...Howwhere wasting it by shopping every day voted for...
...The program's goal is not to eliminate poor countries' debts altogether, but simply to reduce the payment burden to "sustainable" levels, such that governments can continue servicing their debts, yet still finance antipoverty programs Commonweal 9 February 25, 2000...
...tion must face an "unsustainable" debt (its total debt must exceed 200 to 250 percent of the country's annual export earnings, or its yearly debt payments must exceed 20 to 25 uring Argentina's presidential campaign last percent of export earnings...
...k1 Three main criteria for eligibility were established...
...This was chose also to make himself minister of ample...
...Now that my house lusion, with the country's institutions by Haider in Austria, by Jean-Marie Le is more comfortable, I am less tolerant and posts of power shared proportion- Pen in France, and by the Zurich busiof being disturbed in it...
...The Haider has populist counterparts sities has distanced me from the poor clear intention of those who voted for elsewhere in Europe and in the United more than anything else I can think of, the Freedom party was to prevent an- States...
...The two parties have ruled easy immigration to the United States, as more worthy, somehow, more de- Austria since World War II, either in but the two represent a current of popserving of whatever it is I happen to coalition or in what may be called col- ulist nationalism similar to that tapped want at the moment...
...rope's experience of nazism justifies infor the Freedom party's participation But Austrian voters can reasonably ternational constraint on the political freein a coalition government...
...Despite the flawed what happens...
...I think of myself differently now, ernment...
...which caused many Austrians to vote cast their votes-particularly when the The American choice has been that for him...
...This rein- complain that their sovereignty is abused dom of EU members, and restrictions on forced the sense of frustration with do- when they are told that membership in political debate on sensitive subjects...
...Latin American and agreed to debt-reduction packages, qualifying for up financial markets took a nosedive at the prospect of a debt to a combined $6.8 billion in relief over time...
...If human-rights abuses an old and secure democracy that can af- American record on civil liberties and follow, despite the solemn assurances de- ford to take a complacent view of dema- the undeniably repressive force of conmanded by Austria's president, Thomas gogues, of whom America has seen many, formist opinion in the United States, this Klestil, and provided by the coalition par- and to practice wide tolerance concerning is a principle that has proven itself...
...Mozambique, and Uganda-had fulfilled these requirements The fallout was immediate and unmerciful...
...Y and social services...
...now I behave as if I am in the United government...
...1-1 about the differences that separated us from the poor...
...Not that I ac- are making choices similar to one's own, is no such luxury...
...sensus today on the need for new commuch a kilo of sugar costs...
...although no poor person here the only governing coalition on offer, culture, has justified concern about his would ever dream of buying toilet paper...
...C WeMIC In 1996, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) created the Highly Indebted Poor Countries i (HIPC) initiative, the largest official debt-relief effort to date...
...They would be required by the contrast, the question now posed about electoral service to Haider by impos- obligations that link European Union Europe's political values is whether Euing sanctions on Austria as punishment members to one another...
...Five additionmoratorium, while local pundits seized upon the issue to argue that Duhalde would mismanage Argentina's newly privatized market economy...
...India tells the truth and I am not didn't occur to me very often to think be delivered, it is more difficult to see sure I want to hear it...
...D ties, foreign sanctions would clearly be the expression of political opinion...
...In mestic political blockage, and the per- the European Union limits how they can that case, how is it decided what is and is ception of international persecution, legitimately express their opinions and not fit for expression...
...And finally, the government fall, the trailing candidate, Eduardo Duhalde, must show a three-to-six-year track record of implementfloated an audacious trial balloon: He brazenly ing orthodox, IMF-approved macroeconomic reforms...
...Now that I have more gad- years tended to stifle clear-cut policy de- elections...
...There is no racist taint to Ross and it has changed everything in its other People's-Social Democratic gov- Perot or Patrick Buchanan's hostility to wake...
...Not tion to the Haider affair in is pleased to see as a major figure in by American standards our combined Austria has expressed fine Austrian politics, but the collaboration of income is less than $9000 a year-but rel- sentiments about democra- the two established parties invited a ative to our community here...
...ever, his hostility to further European when one trip would suffice for the week Haider's party won 26.91 percent of integration and his call for new limits would be silly...
Vol. 127 • February 2000 • No. 4
