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Center-Right Party Wins in Austria November 25, 2002 By PAUL ZIELBAUER VIENNA, Nov. 24 - Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and his center-right People's Party were the clear victors in Austria's national elections today, winning the party's largest plurality in 36 years and ensuring a continuation of a government focused on tax cuts, privatization and integration into the European Union. At the same time, the results were a great disappointment for the Social Democratic Party. But above all, it was a blow to the extreme-right Freedom Party of Jörg Haider, the polarizing nationalist whose recent antics - a couple of visits with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, for example - were considered the main reason that his party won just 10 percent of the popular vote. That is a precipitous drop from the stunning 27 percent that the Freedom Party captured in 1999, and a weak third place that may spell the end of the Freedom Party's coalition with Mr. Schüssel's People's Party, if not the end of Mr. Haider's influence in national politics here. With 97 percent of the vote counted tonight, the People's Party led all four major parties with 42 percent, followed by 37 percent for the Social Democrats, whose candidate for chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer, 42, had campaigned on a platform of more social spending and certain tax cuts. The Social Democrats, Austria's dominant party for the past half-century but out of government since 1999, had made clear in recent days that their preference would be either to form a coalition government with the Green Party or remain in the opposition. But with the Greens having won just 9 percent, a slight improvement over 1999's result, the two parties will have no chance to form the so-called "red-green" coalition that won re-election in Germany earlier this year. As in Germany, Austrian governments typically are coalitions of two parties that together represent more than 50 percent of the popular vote. With the strong showing by the People's Party tonight, Mr. Schüssel, 57, could invite any of the other three parties into such a partnership. After his victory became clear, Mr. Schüssel said he would continue to set a course of financial and social reforms aimed at strengthening Austria's sputtering economy and pension system. "This result is unexpected, but it is a clear message from voters," Chancellor Schüssel said. "There can be no doubt who should govern Austria and who will govern Austria." But Mr. Schüssel declined to say which party he would prefer to bring on as a coalition partner. "We will proceed carefully, keeping in mind especially those who didn't vote for us," he said. "We'll have conversations with all three parties, and we'll see with which of the three we can best continue making reforms." Mr. Gusenbauer seemed resigned to the possibility, however, that his Social Democratic Party may again be relegated to the political sidelines. "The Austrian People's Party has very clearly won," he said during a television interview tonight. But he noted that his party had gained 4 percent more votes than in 1999. "It's a disappointment," he said, "but we've become a stronger opposition party." After the 1999 elections, it took party leaders three months to form a coalition. With the People's Party having emerged strong enough to partner with any of the three other parties, coalition talks would probably take weeks, most experts said. Fritz Plasser, a political science professor at the University of Innsbruck, said the most practical result of the vote would be to reunite the People's Party and the Social Democrats into the sort of "grand coalition" that has dominated Austrian politics for most of the post-war period. Together, the two parties now represent nearly 80 percent of the electorate. "Looking at the demanding challenges in coming years, including the E.U. enlargement, the most stable government would be a grand coalition, because there is overwhelming agreement in both parties to work for economic enlargement," Professor Plasser said tonight. "But this will also cause problems," he said, "because a grand coalition would have four-fifths of parliamentary seats," duplicating the circumstances that Mr. Haider, 52, used to gain prominence as the voice of the "kleine Menschen," or little people, in fighting a perceived government of insiders. Mr. Haider kept conspicuously out of the public eye after the polls closed at 5 p.m., appearing neither in public nor on television news, though he had been quoted early today as predicting his party would sustain no great defeat. But in a nation with a strong preference for stability and predictability, Mr. Haider had appeared in recent months to go out of his way to offer a confused, unpopular message, political analysts said. His friendly meetings with Mr. Hussein aside, many voters blamed him for engineering a coup within his party that led Mr. Schüssel to dissolve the coalition government and call today's election. Mr. Haider also compared Israel's government to the Iraqi dictatorship recently, leading one of his more notable supporters, Peter Sichrovsky, an Austrian-born Jew and Freedom Party backer who had formerly defended Mr. Haider against charges of anti-Semitism, to very publicly change his mind. "He is a weaker figure, but it is too early to forget about him," Professor Plasser said of Mr. Haider. "We have to wait until Monday to hear what he will say." http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/25/international/europe/25AUST.html?ex=1039244381&ei=1&en=0a41f0579e17e906 HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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