US embassy cable - 05VIENNA945

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 VIENNA 000945 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/AGS (VIKMANIS-KELLER) AND INR/EU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PINR, AU 
SUBJECT:  FREEDOM PARTY CRISIS HEADING FOR APRIL SHOWDOWN 
 
REFS: A) VIENNA 738  B) VIENNA 739 
 
This message is sensitive but unclassified. 
 
1. (SBU) The Freedom Party's leadership crisis continues 
unabated.  On March 9, in an apparent damage-containment 
exercise, the party leadership announced a move to "re- 
brand" the Freedom Party (FPO) at a special convention on 
April 23.  Meanwhile, Carinthian Governor Joerg Haider 
has alternately pondered founding a new party or taking 
the party leadership himself.  But Haider now faces a 
vocal right-wing faction that favors Vienna state FPO 
chairman Heinz Christian Strache as party chair.  In an 
effort to muzzle internal critics, the Carinthian state 
chapter expelled the FPO's sole Member of the European 
Parliament, Andreas Moelzer.  The intra-party turmoil is 
fueling media speculation that Chancellor Schuessel, who 
heads the Freedom Party's coalition partner, the People's 
Party (OVP) might once again have to call early 
elections.  However, the FPO leadership, including 
Haider, has stressed that it wants to continue the 
coalition until 2006.  End summary. 
 
FPO Leadership seeks re-launch of party April 23 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
2. (SBU) On March 9, in reaction to stinging defeats in 
local elections in Lower Austria (ref a) and Styria, FPO 
party chairperson Ursula Haubner, Federal Vice Chancellor 
Hubert Gorbach, Carinthian Governor Joerg Haider and 
parliamentary caucus leader Herbert Scheibner announced a 
bid to unify and consolidate the party and win back 
former FPO voters.  To flesh out this re-branding 
strategy, the party leadership tasked Scheibner with 
drafting a new platform.  This would include strategies 
to create employment (especially for women and young 
adults), address "the threat from globalization" and 
reach out to small and medium-sized businesses. 
Scheibner and his colleagues emphasized the FPO was "100 
percent committed to implementing the coalition agreement 
with the OVP until the end of the legislative term in 
2006" (ref b). 
 
Haider to return as national FPO chairman? 
------------------------------------------ 
 
3.  (SBU) The March 9 announcement appeared to defuse 
Haider's statement of a few days earlier that he would 
leave the FPO to found a new party.  However, Haider said 
he would retain this option in case delegates at an 
extraordinary convention on April 23 decline to give him 
carte blanche to reorganize the party from top to bottom. 
Among other things, Haider wants the right to depose 
leaders of state branches.  Haider is demanding a two- 
thirds majority at the convention for his new course and 
his new mandate.  In a radio interview on March 12, 
Haider hinted that he would again seek the national 
chairmanship -- which would mean that his sister, 
Haubner, would have to move aside. 
 
4. (SBU) However, Haider's latest bid for leadership did 
not elicit the usual rush of support from the FPO 
faithful.  Instead, it mobilized the party's right wing, 
which openly challenged Haider's claim to the post. 
Haider's demand for sweeping powers to purge the party 
was particularly controversial, with even some of his 
closest followers showing a lack of enthusiasm.  Four of 
the nine state parties (Vienna, Lower Austria, Salzburg, 
Tyrol) rejected Haider's plan, while five others offered 
varying degrees of support.  With the Carinthian and 
Vienna chapters as the two largest, this represents a 
split almost down the middle. 
 
Expulsion of party critic Moelzer 
--------------------------------- 
 
5. (SBU) The intra-party rift widenened on March 16 when 
the Carinthian state party expelled its most notorious 
right-winger, Member of the European Parliament Andreas 
Moelzer.  The motion cited "repeated behavior damaging to 
the party" and "actions directed against Carinthian 
Governor Joerg Haider."  Haubner said the national FPO 
would follow suit.  Moelzer's sin was to have authored an 
article in his weekly "Zur Zeit," in which he bluntly 
analyzed the shortcomings of the FPO leadership and the 
pitiful state of the party.  Moelzer plans a legal 
challenge to the expulsion.  FPO right-wingers are 
mobilizing around him. 
 
Youthful Challenger from Vienna 
------------------------------- 
 
6. (SBU) Haider's critics within the FPO are coalescing 
around Heinz Christian Strache, the eloquent, youthful 
head of the Vienna state FPO.  Strache is part of a 
triumvirate of FPO hardliners which includes Moelzer, as 
well as the former FPO parliamentary caucus chief and 
current head of the FPO academy, Ewald Stadler.  Strache, 
another possible contender for the party chairmanship, 
has been sharpening his political profile in the year 
since taking over the Vienna party with a law-and-order 
campaign tinged with anti-immigrant overtones.  Strache 
has openly expressed interest in becoming party chair, 
but has also met Haider twice recently to seek a way out 
of the current impasse. 
 
7. (SBU) COMMENT: The turbulence in the FPO represents a 
bitter, soul-searching battle over personalities and 
strategies.  It has fueled media speculation that 
Chancellor Schuessel will again have to call early 
elections.  Party moderates (the national leadership, 
plus Haider) advocate continued participation in the 
federal coalition, and point to Haider's reelection as 
governor one year ago as proof the FPO can thrive in 
government.  An ideological camp led by hardliners 
Moelzer, Strache, and Stadler advocates a switch into 
opposition as the formula for the FPO's salvation.  The 
April 23 convention is shaping up as a leadership 
struggle between Haider and Strache -- with Haubner 
largely forgotten in the melee.  The Haider camp seems 
intent on weaning Strache away from his right-wing 
allies, but it is not clear what they can offer Strache 
short of the chairmanship.  If the party splits, new 
elections by fall 2005 become more likely.  However, if 
the present party leadership (reinforced by the rebranded 
Haider) win out, remaining in the coalition with 
Schuessel will be the FPO's top priority. 
 
BROWN