US embassy cable - 05VIENNA1401

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 VIENNA 001401 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/AGS (VIKMANIS-KELLER) AND INR/EU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PINR, AU 
SUBJECT: FREEDOM PARTY: NEW LEADER, TRIED-AND-TRUE THEMES 
 
REFS:  A) VIENNA 738  B) VIENNA 739  C) VIENNA 945 
 
D) VIENNA 1101  E) VIENNA 1298 
 
This message is sensitive but unclassified. 
 
1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Freedom Party (FPO) delegates elected 
Vienna state chairman Heinz Christian Strache as new FPO 
national chair at a special convention in Salzburg April 
23.  Strache, blasting the founder of the FPO spinoff 
party BZO (Alliance Future Austria), Joerg Haider, as a 
betrayer, pledged to consolidate and jump-start the 
national FPO.  The new party leader sounded traditional 
Freedom Party themes, such as opposition to immigration 
and Turkish EU membership, skepticism about the planned 
purchase of Eurofighter interceptors and the importance 
of maintaining Austria's official neutrality.  However, 
despite their bitterness toward the breakaway BZO, most 
of the handful of parliamentarians who stayed loyal to 
the FPO will still consider voting with the OVP-BZO 
coalition on a case-by-case basis.  The majority for the 
current government seems a bit more solid as a result, 
reducing somewhat the likelihood of early elections. 
Still, the quarrels between the two right-leaning 
splinter parties are bound to produce continued 
volatility, with unpredictable consequences for the 
stability of the government coalition.  End summary. 
 
2. (SBU) One week after the founding of the FPO spin-off 
BZO (ref D), Freedom Party stalwarts also chose Salzburg 
as the venue for a special party convention to elect a 
new leadership and shore up the party's sagging fortunes. 
Delegates pinned their hopes on Vienna state chairman 
Heinz Christian Strache (35), a youthful, articulate 
hardliner who had emerged as Haider's major intra-party 
competitor in the weeks leading up to the FPO split.  As 
the sole candidate for party chairman, Strache received 
91 percent of the 500-plus delegates' votes. 
 
3. (SBU) Strache accused BZO leader Haider of having 
betrayed the values and spirit of the FPO in recent years 
with opportunistic "zig-zag" politics.  He urged 
delegates to unite and give new momentum to the party. 
Returning to tried-and-true Freedom Party themes, Strache 
stressed that this FPO stood for opposition to 
immigration and to Turkish EU membership, closer 
monitoring of Islamic fundamentalism and an "Austria 
first" patriotism.  He advocated a more assertive stand 
toward the EU and stressed the importance of upholding 
Austria's official neutrality.  Strache also roundly 
rejected the still controversial 2002 decision (by the 
first OVP-FPO cabinet) to purchase Eurofighter 
interceptors for the Austrian army. 
 
4. (SBU) Only 4 out of the 18 members of the FPO caucus 
attended the convention, nourishing speculation that 
Strache would not gather enough support to call the 
government's majority in Parliament into question.  This 
majority now depends on support from Chancellor 
Schuessel's People's Party (OVP), the BZO and self- 
declared "independent" FPO legislators.  The latter have 
stated they will support legislation introduced by the 
OVP-BZO coalition on a case-by-case basis.  In fact, they 
appear largely willing to vote with the government, 
rather than bring it down by siding with the Social 
Democrats and Greens.  On April 27 all but one of the FPO- 
loyal MPs voted against an opposition motion to start a 
parliamentary investigation of the Eurofighter deal. 
 
5. (SBU) Meanwhile, two Upper House MPs caused a national 
uproar with recent statements that seriously dented the 
image of both parties.  Siegfried Kampl of the Carinthian 
BZO called 1945 Wehrmacht deserters "murderers of their 
comrades" and complained of "persecutions" of Nazi Party 
members in the postwar period.  The BZO leadership 
announced his resignation from the upper house on April 
28.  John Gudenus, a Vienna FPO rightist, unleashed 
another firestorm when he cast doubt on the existence of 
Nazi gas chambers.  Strache forced him to quit the FPO, 
but Gudenus has yet to surrender his Upper House seat. 
 
6. (SBU) COMMENT: Judging from his convention speech, new 
FPO leader Strache is seeking to re-position his party 
firmly on the right of Austria's political spectrum. 
Strache faces a dual challenge in uniting the party and 
asserting his own leadership, however.  Two state 
chapters (Vorarlberg and Upper Austria) have so far 
declared themselves "independent" of the national party, 
one FPO chapter (Vienna) has split between FPO and BZO 
sympathizers, while the single strongest FPO group, 
Carinthia, has gone over en masse to Carinthian Governor 
Joerg Haider's new BZO.  Moreover, the confusing strategy 
by FPO-loyal MPs -- expressing outrage over the new OVP- 
BZO coalition arrangement while continuing to vote with 
the center-right government -- has already undercut FPO 
credibility.  Clearly, neither of Austria's two right- 
wing parties is in shape to contest elections now, giving 
their parliamentary representatives every reason to work 
together, even as unresolved questions about party 
subsidies and debts continue to drive them apart. 
 
Brown