Austrians Prepare to Choose New President

Daily News ^ | April 24 2004 | WILLIAM J. KOLE

[knighthawk]

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Austrians pick a new president this weekend for the first time in more than a decade, with voters choosing between two candidates who differ sharply on whether the alpine country should retain its cherished neutrality.

Sunday's election for the largely ceremonial office pits Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who insists the time has come to reconsider neutrality, against deputy parliament speaker Heinz Fischer, who contends remaining politically detached won't prevent Austria from showing solidarity with other European countries in times of conflict.

Ferrero-Waldner, 55, a member of the Austrian People's Party of Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, has been foreign minister since 2000 and would become the nation's first woman president if elected. Fischer, 65, is a Social Democrat and a former president of the national assembly.

Current President Thomas Klestil, a political independent, is wrapping up his second six-year term and is prohibited by the constitution from running for re-election. He has been president since 1992.

Using a soccer metaphor, Ferrero-Waldner said Friday she hoped "to score a 1-0 victory." Her campaign has stressed her foreign policy experience and her fluency in several languages, with billboards touting the advantages of a president "who can speak to 101 heads of state."

Latest News Austrians Prepare to Choose New President

Fischer has publicly ridiculed that and responded with promises that, if elected, he would spend most of his time at home listening to the concerns and grievances of ordinary Austrians. Fischer's campaign has worked hard to shed his image as a colorless and somewhat uninspiring party bureaucrat.

Recent polls show the race between the two has tightened. A survey released Thursday gave Fischer a 6-point lead over Ferrero-Waldner. It did not give a margin of error.

Neutrality increasingly has come under debate in Austria, one of four neutral European Union member states along with Finland, Ireland and Sweden.

Austria has been officially neutral since 1955, when a state treaty restored the country's postwar independence, and nonalignment has been an important part of national identity ever since.

Neutrality is partly why so many international organizations - including OPEC, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe - are based in the Austrian capital.

But Austria's neutrality alienated it from the United States just before the U.S.-led war in Iraq, when the Austrian government blocked U.S. soldiers from crossing the country en route to the Gulf, saying it would not allow troops to transit without a new U.N. resolution authorizing hostilities.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld questioned the policy at the time, saying Austria's refusal meant several extra days of travel for Germany-based American troops trying to reach Italy. Citing its neutral stance, Austria also refused to approve U.S. military flights through its airspace.

While the post is mostly ceremonial, the Austrian president is commander-in-chief of country's tiny military, and the constitution gives the president the power to reject nominations for Cabinet ministers or even to remove them from office - something that has rarely been done.

[knighthawk]

Europe-list

If people want on or off this list, please let me know.

[csvset]

Any reason to expect the "influence of Islam" to factor into this election?

[Bismarck]

The Austrian People's Party is probaly the most (or only)pro-USA party in Austria. Having Ferrero-Waldner as Austrian president would surely be an plus for the USA... but just an FYI. The Austrian president has mostly diplomatic and ceremonial functions...

[rogue yam]

"Neutrality" is just a fancy word for "freeloading." The Austrians need to start carrying their own water. They were excellent as imperial tyrants and fascistic mass-murderers. Let's see them try playing freedom-loving liberators and peacekeepers on the world stage for a change. They might find it's somewhat harder than it looks and thus decide to come down off of their high-horse a little bit.

[qwertz]

Let's see them try playing freedom-loving liberators and peacekeepers on the world stage for a change.

Where does it say Austrians don't participate in international peacekeeping missions? You shouldn't be assuming too much just from having read one article.

A little research before hitting post would show you that Austrian troops are in Kosovo, or Golan at the moment, for example. They've been in Bosnia, Cyprus, Macedonia, Afghanistan, and participated in dozens of other UN peacekeeping missions over the years. Population wise Austrians are doing more than most other, non-neutral countries.

[rogue yam]

This page from U.S. Central Command shows flags of coalition countries supporting OEF in Afghanistan. Austria is not shown.

Link: http://www.centcom.mil/Operations/Coalition/joint.htm

Do you have a citation for your claims?

BTW, I wasn't talking about U.N. stand-around-and-watch-people-kill-each-other missions. I was talking about make-a-difficult-decision-and-then-go-in-there-and-implement-it type affairs. Definitely a horse of a different color.

Oh, and by the way, welcome to FreeRepublic.

[qwertz]

Sorry for not getting to answer sooner.

Seems to me like at least a third of the nations listed on the Centcom page as coalition members haven't done more than raised their hand, maybe appointed a couple liaison officers, and demanded financial assistance...

Austrian soldiers however have been in Afghanistan as part of ISAF until 4 months ago (with only a couple staff officers being still there): gallery 1 gallery 2

Austria certainly isn't a freeloader. The reason Austria can't be part of an official coalition (yet) is that, well, neutrality is part of their constitution, and guaranteed by the victors of WWII (USA, GB, France, and Russia) according to the Austrian State Treaty of 1955. The Austrian government doesn't want to get either one of these powers into their face by breaching that treaty.

Participation in peace-keeping missions sanctioned by the UN is as far as they can stretch their neutrality. Over the last decades 60.000 Austrians have volunteered for peace-keeping missions abroad - population wise that's the equivalent of 2.1 million Americans. They are renowned for being being disciplined and professional. They're just not putting on a show about what they do. E.g. they've opened their Alpine Infantry School to friendly armies a few years ago, and NATO (including British and American) special forces had the chance to take courses in winter and mountain warfare there.