Britannia Radio

The Austrians are having an election and have got themselves in a 
real mess!   The U is unpopular in austria but being totally 
surrounded by other EU countries it really hasn't m uch option but to 
grin and bear it.  But the EU is getting ratty  and is putting most 
improper pressure on the voters to stem the tide of anti-EU 
sentiment .  The EU Commission's representative in Austria proposes 
to campaign strongly saying "I will turn the trend round"? (Ich will 
den Trend umkehren)
  (see .. in German ... http://www.nachrichten.at/politik/
innenpolitik/731285PHPSESSID=d758c76a0666c9c19f9c7b8b5bec8cd2

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IRISH TIMES   6.9.08
Power of 'Krone' newspaper in Austrian politics at issue in poll

AUSTRIA: Politicians' freedom of thought and Austria's EU role are at 
stake in the election, writes Derek Scally in Vienna

WHEN IRISH voters rejected the Lisbon Treaty in June, they started a 
chain reaction that, three weeks later, brought down Austria's grand 
coalition government.

After 18 months of bickering and political standstill, the Social 
Democrats (SPÖ) and the conservative People's Party (ÖVP) went their 
separate ways, each blaming the other for the resulting snap election.

With just three weeks to polling day, the two parties are neck and 
neck in the opinion polls. But there is more at stake on September 
28th than who will next take power in Vienna. The result will have 
far-reaching European implications and will answer a long-running 
question in Austria: is it possible to win an election without the 
help of the Kronenzeitung newspaper?

The " Krone " is both Austria's smallest and largest newspaper, with 
a daily readership of nearly three million but only the size of an A4 
sheet. Some 43 per cent of Austrians pick it up daily, making it 
proportionately the most widely read paper in the world.

The Krone knows all too well how to wield that influence. It drummed 
up popular support for Austrian president Kurt Waldheim after his 
Nazi past was revealed in 1985; a decade ago its support helped the 
extreme-right populist Jörg Haider into power.

After backing Austria's EU accession in 1994, politicians in Vienna 
sat up and took notice when, earlier this year, the Krone launched an 
energetic campaign against it. Day in, day out, the newspaper attacks 
what it sees as endemic EU corruption and business-friendly policies 
it says hurt Austria's interests. The opening of Austria's border to 
eastern neighbours has, it says, driven up crime. In a dedicated 
section of its letters page, a reader described the EU this week as a 
"route back to slavery".

The campaign reflects and fuels a growing Austrian distrust of 
Brussels. Last month's Eurobarometer survey showed that just 28 per 
cent of the population have a positive view of the EU, making 
Austrians the most Eurocritical nation in the union - ahead of even 
the British.

Three months ago, when Ireland voted No to Lisbon, the Krone moved 
its campaign up a gear.

The struggling SPÖ chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer, wrote a letter to 
the Krone , stating that "any future changes to the treaty that 
affect Austrian interests must be decided in Austria by a referendum".

The prospect of another referendum treaty hurdle caused jitters in 
Brussels and uproar in Vienna. The ÖVP, with a small lead in the 
polls, walked out of government, condemning Gusenbauer's "act of 
prostration before the Krone ".

The letter backfired on Gusenbauer and undermined his already low 
standing among SPÖ colleagues, who were incensed that a fundamental 
change in the party's EU policy could be announced by decree in a 
tabloid newspaper.

So why did he do it? The smoke began to clear after the election was 
called, when Gusenbauer stood aside as lead candidate in favour of 
SPÖ transport minister Werner Faymann, the co-signatory on the Krone 
letter.
A political veteran of 15 years and one of the SPÖ's most influential 
figures, Faymann is a close confidant of the 87-year-old Krone 
publisher and editor-in-chief Hans Dichand, known as "Uncle Hans".

"Faymann is a technocrat, a smooth Sonny Boy and Dichand's protege," 
says Oliver Pink, political editor of Die Presse newspaper.

For weeks now, Faymann has been the subject of flattering news 
reports, opinion columns and - a feature unique to the Krone - 
political poems.
Competing newspapers have been both alarmed and amused, with Die 
Presse describing the Krone 's political reports as "straight out of 
Pravda".

Analyses by the GfK polling agency suggest the campaign is bearing 
fruit. Of the 20 per cent of Austrians who read only the Krone , 
support for the ÖVP has dropped 19 per cent. "I've never seen 
anything like it," said Dr Peter Ulram, a political scientist and GfK 
analyst. "Populism in Austria has entered a new stage. The SPÖ has 
given up part of its decision-making authority to a non-political 
instance."

Faymann's apparent quid pro quo with the Krone has alarmed the ÖVP - 
particularly since it has found itself in the tabloid's cross-hairs.

The party's chancellor candidate, Wilhelm Molterer, the outgoing 
finance minister, has been attacked for weeks as being either 
incompetent, "totally on the side of the EU", or both.

In that period, the ÖVP's poll lead has melted away and the party is 
now trailing the SPÖ.

"It's always been clear to us that Austria's place is as an active, 
confident player in the EU but, I'm sorry to say, I'm afraid there's 
been a change in the SPÖ," Molterer told The Irish Times .
"Their about-turn through a newspaperman throws a questionable light 
on politics in general. Politics cannot allow itself to become 
dependent on anything, neither business nor media. The firewall has 
to remain in place."

Across the Austrian media, political analysts have expressed concern 
that an SPÖ win will send politicians the message that it is 
dangerous to cross the Krone.
"In a country like Britain, the power of the Sun is weakened by the 
Mirror and the broadsheets. In Austria, the Krone has no equal," says 
Armin

Thurnher, editor of Vienna city newspaper Falter . "Dichand has 
always had a nose for people's concerns and what people want to hear. 
He doesn't want Austria to leave the EU because people don't want 
that. But there is a market, and thus an economic motivation, for 
attacking the EU."

In the Kronenzeitung building, few are prepared to discuss the 
paper's support for Faymann. Dichand's secretary says that the Krone 
editor "will not be contactable for the next time".

Some 14 floors below, chief political correspondent Dieter Kindermann 
is a little more forthcoming. "I try to write neutral, independent 
reports but that is not desired at present," he says. "Because I 
cannot hold the line of the editor-in-chief, the newspaper and I are 
parting company."