c. 2000 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.)

(UNDATED) The recent entry of Joerg Haider’s far-right political party into the Austrian government set off alarm bells around the world. The United States and Israel withdrew their ambassadors to Vienna, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, “We have decided to limit our contacts with the new government and we will see whether further actions are necessary to advance our support for democratic values.”

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a rare comment on a nation’s internal affairs, expressed concern about events in Austria. In an ironic twist, one of Annan’s predecessors in the top U.N. position was Kurt Waldheim, whose election as Austria’s president in the 1980s created another firestorm.

Germany, Spain, Belgium and Denmark froze their political relations with Austria because of the rise of Haider’s party in the country of Adolf Hitler’s birth. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar was sharply critical, and Britain said it would closely monitor the new government’s performance. The European Union, of which Austria is a member, was surprisingly tough on the new Vienna government.

The 50-year-old man who sparked this anger is the governor of Carinthia, an Austrian province. Haider represents a dangerous new breed of European right-wing ideologues who cynically employ an old script to gain political power.

Haider’s Freedom Party won 27 percent of the vote for Parliament in last autumn’s Austrian election by attacking the increasing number of immigrants who have entered the Alpine republic of 8 million people. He declared he “didn’t want Vienna to become like Chicago.”

Haider attracted many workers in the election by assailing the Socialist/Conservative alliance that has long ruled Austria. He has called the current Austrian political structure obsolete, and wants the post-World War II “Second Republic” replaced with a far different “Third Republic.” Haider’s foes, who see the Freedom Party as extremist, describe the proposal for a “Third Republic” as a cover for a fascist “Fourth Reich.”

Nine years ago Haider created a furor when he praised the “orderly” employment policies of Nazi Germany. Enraged critics charged that, of course, Hitler’s slave laborers were “orderly” when confronted by heavily armed guards, vicious dogs and filthy work camps. The negative reaction to Haider’s statement forced him to resign as Carinthian governor, but he was re-elected last March.

In 1995 Haider said the Nazi SS was “a part of the German army which deserves honor and respect.” The brutal SS was the elite Nazi military organization, the true believers who carried out the mass murder of millions. It is obscene to claim Heinrich Himmler, the SS chief, and the killers he commanded deserve “honor and respect.”

Haider has publicly described World War II death factories, like Auschwitz, as merely “punishment or penal” camps. When it appeared the Freedom Party might become part of the Austrian ruling coalition, Haider apologized for his remarks, but the suspicion remains his real views haven’t changed.

In 1995 Haider strongly opposed Austria’s entry into the European Union, and he tried to force a referendum on whether Austria should join the euro single currency system. He failed on both issues, but his anti-EU views remain a basic part of his platform. Haider’s party, now a legitimate member of the new coalition, took power in early February amid street riots in Vienna and deep anger throughout Austria.

Ominously, the Austrian far-right leader has received praise from the granddaughter of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and placards at a pro-Haider rally in Paris proudly proclaimed “Today Austria! Tomorrow France!”

In the bloody wake of Nazism and the Holocaust, many European political and religious leaders have publicly declared: “Never again! Never again a racist regime in Europe! Never again a xenophobic ultra-right-wing party in power anywhere in Europe. Never again!”

But despite these welcome statements, both systems, political and religious, failed to prevent ethnic cleansing and open warfare in the Balkans. And now Haider’s xenophobic party has gained power in the heart of what has been called “Christian Europe.”

Europe’s religious communities, especially the Roman Catholic leadership in Austria, is under intense scrutiny and judgment. Will it vigorously oppose a potential dictatorship from the right? While the Polish Catholic Church opposed communism and supported the Solidarity movement, critics note European churches have a historic blind spot when it comes to opposing right-wing leaders and movements.

The churches failed in the Germany of the 1930s and the Yugoslavia of the 1990s. Will they fail once again in the face of Haider and his far-right party?

DEA END RUDIN