Wolfgang Schüssel: Encyclopedia II - Wolfgang Schüssel - Chancellor of Austria

Wolfgang Schüssel - Chancellor of Austria

Wolfgang Schüssel - The Schüssel I government

On February 4, 2000 Wolfgang Schüssel was sworn in as Chancellor, following a defeat in the 1999 election, after which his party ended up in third place only. Until then, his party had been the junior partner in a coalition with the SPÖ. However, talks to renew that coalition failed, which induced Schüssel to enter a coalition with the FPÖ. He became Chancellor, even though his party was trailing behind its coalition partner by a few votes.

The government headed by Schüssel was - in its beginnings - probably the most controversial since 1945, which to a large extent is due to the coalition formed with the far right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), whose leader at that time was Jörg Haider. Although Haider was never a member of Schüssel's government, his participation raised widespread criticism, both inside and outside of Austria.

Between 2000 and 2002 there were weekly Donnerstagsdemonstrationen (Thursday Demonstrations) through the city and the inner districts of Vienna. The coalition with the Austrian Freedom Party and various policies aiming at achieving the much-maligned Nulldefizit (zero budget deficit) were the main points of criticism.

The heads the governments of the other 14 EU members decided to cease cooperation with the Austrian government, as it was felt in many countries that the cordon sanitaire against coalitions with parties considered as right-wing extremists, which had mostly held in Western Europe since 1945, had been breached. For example, for several months, other national leaders refused to shake hands and socialize with members of the Schüssel government. In Austria, this approach was often described as sanctions.

Government supporters often blamed the opposition social democrats and President Thomas Klestil for the so-called "sanctions" imposed by the EU14 and their loyalty to the country was thus put into question. Schüssel's government was the first after 30 years with a Chancellor who was not a representative of the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ). In the period from 1945 to 2000 the SPÖ was in the government for 51 years and led it for 30 years, which was claimed by government supporters to be the true reason for the demonstrations and for the so-called "sanctions".

Schüssel's ÖVP had however been a member of all governments from 1945 to 1970 and from 1986 onwards, and had never been completely excluded from power. The tradition of social partnership meant that representatives of all major interest groups in the country would be consulted before any policy was enacted. Since the ÖVP had always dominated the representations of farmers, businessmen and government employees, it had never been completely shut out from policymaking, also during the Kreisky era, even though its influence was considerably attenuated during that time. When Schüssel came into power, he broke with that tradition in order to be able to enact reforms that he felt to be necessary more quickly, which is probably also the reason for a lot of resentment towards him and his government.

On a diplomatic level the so-called "sanctions" carried on for months, both the Austrian government and the EU14 tried to seek a solution for the situation. Because the legal basis was international law (diplomatic retaliation on moderate level is allowed - the law cannot oblige people to be nice to each other and shake hands) and not the EU-Charter, EU-law did not provide a way out. Therefore after a couple of months a delegation of 3 experts (die drei EU-Weisen) was sent to Austria to examine the political situation and to determine if the EU14's so-called "sanctions" could be lifted. Their report did not find reasons that would permit the other EU-members according to then existing EU-law to engage in further measures going beyond those that are allowed in international law. However, the more important conclusion the report draw was that a system for exactly these kind of situations should be implemented and incorporated into EU-law. This subsequently happened with the amendments to the EU-treaties in Nice in 2001.

Following the report, the EU leaders subsequently abandonned the so-called "sanctions" and returned to normality during the summer of 2000, even though the coalition remained unchanged.

Wolfgang Schüssel - The Schüssel II government

By the summer of 2002, a series of lost elections had resulted in considerable internal strife in the FPÖ, which was instigated by Haider and some of his closest allies. When the leading proponents of the more pragmatic wing of this party, Vice Chancellor Susanne Riess-Passer and Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser, announced their resignation, Schüssel broke the coaltion and announced general elections, which were held prematurely in November 2002 and led to a landslide victory for Schüssel. However, after negotiating for months with both the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and the Green Party, Schüssel decided to renew his coalition government with the Freedom Party, which had been reduced to a mere 10 percent of the vote.

On February 28, 2003, after a landslide victory, he was sworn in as Chancellor again, this time with the confidence of having won the elections.

In April 2005, the FPÖ effectively split in two parties, namely the old FPÖ and the new Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), which consists of Jörg Haider, the former FPÖ government members and most FPÖ members of the National Council of Austria, while the party base in most states remains with the old party. In spite of this change in the nature of his coalition partner, Schüssel seems determined to continue the coalition, if possible, until the end of the current legislative period.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Chancellor of Austria", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki