AUSTRIA: AUSTRIAN FAR-RIGHT FIGUREHEAD JOERG HAIDER WINS ELECTORAL VICTORY IN CARINTHIA
Record ID:
648513
AUSTRIA: AUSTRIAN FAR-RIGHT FIGUREHEAD JOERG HAIDER WINS ELECTORAL VICTORY IN CARINTHIA
- Title: AUSTRIA: AUSTRIAN FAR-RIGHT FIGUREHEAD JOERG HAIDER WINS ELECTORAL VICTORY IN CARINTHIA
- Date: 7th March 2004
- Summary: (U7) KLAGENFURT, AUSTRIA (MARCH 7, 2004)(REUTERS) 1. SLV LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICES WITH POSTER OF RIGHT WING GOVERNOR OF CARINTHIA JOERG HAIDER OUTSIDE 0.05 2. SLV POLICE GUARDING ENTRANCE TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICES 0.09 3. SLV/SV JOERG HAIDER PREPARING TO BE INTERVIEWED BY AUSTRIAN TELEVISION AT LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICES (3 SHOTS) 0.24 4. CU/SV FREEDOM PARTY MEMBERS FOLLOWING ELECTION RESULTS (2 SHOTS) 0.33 5. SV/MCU JOERG HAIDER ON AUSTRIA TELEVISION (2 SHOTS) 0.43 6. MCU (German) PETER AMBROSI, LEADER OF SOCIAL DEMOCRATS WHO MADE HUGE GAINS IN THE ELECTIONS, SAYING "It's a big day for the Social Democrats, we are happy with the result and it's a significant signal to Vienna and I am convinced that there will soon be a change nationwide." 1.04 7. SV HAIDER BEING INTERVIEWED AT LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICES 1.08 8. MCU (English) JOERG HAIDER, GOVERNOR OF CARINTHIA, SAYING "It was a big surprise for us that we could win additional wards in this campaign but I think it is a vote of the people because they are satisfied with our policy and I think therefore I will be the chairman of this government in the future, in the next five years because we have started a lot of projects and we will fulfil our promises in the last five years." 1.39 9. SV HAIDER BEING INTERVIEWED 1.44 10. MCU (German) JOERG HAIDER, SAYING "In fact I did not expect that we would have a success like this. I am very satisfied and thankful that the voters reacted on the work we did. I was always afraid that we have moved so far and so many programmes like no other local government before. We did it for the future of Carinthia. The modernisation of Carinthia is very important for us and we will continue with that for the next five years and I am sure we will find partners to carry on." 2.16 11. SV HAIDER WALKS THROUGH LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICES 2.27 12. VARIOUS SOCIAL DEMOCRATS AT SPO HEADQUARTERS (3 SHOTS) 2.41 13. VARIOUS FREEDOM PARTY MEMBERS CELEBRATING AT TOWN HALL (5 SHOTS) 3.17 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 22nd March 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KLAGENFURT, AUSTRIA
- Country: Austria
- Reuters ID: LVA307PPPFKGHWB0GZDXYWR88PUK
- Story Text: Austrian far-right figurehead Joerg Haider wins
electoral victory in home province.
Austrian far-right figurehead Joerg Haider won a
surprise electoral victory in his home province of
Carinthia on Sunday, strengthening his grip on an ailing
party and his influence on the coalition government.
A provisional result showed his Freedom Party had
clearly beaten its Socialist rival in a vote that should
see Haider remain governor of Carinthia and undisputed
strongman of a party which has suffered a series of
electoral defeats.
The provisional count, reported on Austrian state
television, showed the Freedom Party had won 42.5 percent
of the vote, improving on the 42.0 percent it won in 1999.
The Socialist Party had 38.4 percent.
Opinion polls earlier had placed Haider's party second,
roughly three percentage points behind the Socialists.
But the charismatic nationalist, who has in the past
provoked uproar by praising Nazi employment policy and
Iraq's Saddam Hussein, appeared to say his victory would
not spur him back into national politics.
While the result boosts Haider's authority in his party
and in Vienna, few expect a return to his heyday of four
years ago, when he stunned Europe by taking his
anti-immigration party into the national government.
Haider then swiftly quit as party chairman after EU
partners imposed diplomatic sanctions on conservative
Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's coalition. He has remained
a power behind the scenes but the party has slumped in
national popularity.
Much of the 27 percent of the vote it scored in the
1999 general election has evaporated. It took just 10
percent in 2002 but remains the junior partner in
Schuessel's government.
Analysts said Haider was unlikely to move out of
regional politics officially as his party's success was
confined to his province, one of nine in Austria.
A partial count in Salzburg's regional election, which
was also held on Sunday, showed support for the Freedom
Party fell by more than half to 8.7 percent. Last
September, Haider's allies won less than 10 percent of
votes in two other provincial polls.
To become governor, Haider must win the support of at
least one other party in the newly elected regional
assembly. Analysts said that was likely.
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