The Schüssel Era in Austria Günter Bischof, Fritz Plasser (Eds.)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The Schüssel Era in Austria Günter Bischof, Fritz Plasser (Eds.) CONTEMPORARY AUSTRIAN STUDIES Volume 18 innsbruck university press Copyright ©2010 by University of New Orleans Press, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to UNO Press, University of New Orleans, ED 210, 2000 Lakeshore Drive, New Orleans, LA, 70119, USA. www.unopress.org. Printed in the United States of America. Published and distributed in the United States by Published and distributed in Europe by University of New Orleans Press: Innsbruck University Press: ISBN 978-1-60801-009-7 ISBN 978-3-902719-29-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2009936824 Contemporary Austrian Studies Sponsored by the University of New Orleans and Universität Innsbruck Editors Günter Bischof, CenterAustria, University of New Orleans Fritz Plasser, Universität Innsbruck Production Editor Copy Editor Assistant Editor Ellen Palli Jennifer Shimek Michael Maier Universität Innsbruck Loyola University, New Orleans UNO/Vienna Executive Editors Franz Mathis, Universität Innsbruck Susan Krantz, University of New Orleans Advisory Board Siegfried Beer Sándor Kurtán Universität Graz Corvinus University Budapest Peter Berger Günther Pallaver Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien Universität Innsbruck John Boyer Peter Pulzer University of Chicago Oxford University Gary Cohen (ex officio) Oliver Rathkolb Center for Austrian Studies Universität Wien University of Minnesota Sieglinde Rosenberger Christine Day Universität Wien University of New Orleans Alan Scott Oscar Gabriel Universität Innsbruck Universität Stuttgart Franz Szabo (ex officio) Reinhard Heinisch Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central University of Salzburg European Studies University of Alberta Pieter Judson Heidemarie Uhl Swarthmore College Austrian Academy of Sciences Wilhelm Kohler Ruth Wodak Universität Tübingen University of Lancaster Helmut Konrad Universität Graz Publication of this volume has been made possible through generous grants from the Austrian Ministries of Foreign Affairs through the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York as well as the Ministry of Science and Research. The Austrian Marshall Plan Anniversary Foundation in Vienna has been very generous in supporting CenterAustria at the University of New Orleans and its publications series. The College of Liberal Arts at the University of New Orleans and the Auslandsamt of the University of Innsbruck provided additional financial support as did the Cultural Office of the City of Innsbruck. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 1 TOPICAL ESSAYS I. Personality and Leadership Peter Gerlich: The Political Personality of Wolfgang Schüssel 7 Fritz Plasser and Peter A. Ulram: Rollercoaster: Schüssels’ Electoral (Mis)fortunes and the Dynamics of Public Approval 21 Günther Lengauer: Schüssel and the Media: An Ambivalent Relationship 37 David Wineroither: Making Omelets and Breaking Eggs? Schüssel’s Leadership in Government and Party 56 Kurt Richard Luther: Governing with Right-Wing Populists and Managing the Consequences: Schüssel and the FPÖ 79 Ferdinand Karlhofer: The Politics of Asymmetry: (Non) Corporatist Policy Making, 2000-2006 104 Reinhard Heinisch: Unremarkably Remarkable, Remarkably Unremarkable: Schüssel as Austria’s Foreign Policymaker in a Time of Transition 119 II. Policies and Policy Changes Otmar Höll: Wolfgang Schüssel and Austrian Foreign Policy 159 Heinrich Neisser: The Schüssel Years and the European Union 183 Günter Bischof and Michael S. Maier: Reinventing Tradition and the Politics of History: Schüssel’s Restitution and Commemoration Policies 206 Johannes Ditz: Economic Policies and Economic Change 235 Max Preglau: Schüssel and the Welfare State 262 Josef Leidenfrost: The Demise of “Minoritenplatz-Schleicherei”: Eighty-Four Months of Wende Higher Education Policy in Austria 283 Anton Pelinka: Legacies of the Schüssel Years 320 FORUM Maria-Regina Kecht: “Disturbing Creativity?”: Austrian Literature, Studies, and Cultural Politics 339 David S. Luft: Austrian and German History and Literature 344 Leslie Morris: Austrian-Jewish Studies? 348 Andreas Stadler: Disturbing Creativity: Phantom Pains, Arts, and Cultural Policies in Postwar Austria 351 BOOK REVIEWS Steven Beller: Anton Pelinka, Hubert Sickinger, Karin Stögner, Kreisky, Haider: Bruchlinien österreichischer Identitäten 356 Evan Burr Bukey: Gerhard Botz, Nationalsozialismus in Wien: Machtübernahme, Herrschaftssicherung, Radikalisierung 1938/39 Hans Petschar, Anschluss “Ich hole Euch heim”: Der “Anschluss” Õsterreichs an das Deutsche Reich. Fotografie und Wochenschau im Dienst der NS-Propaganda, Eine Bildchronologie 359 Michael Phayer: Gerald Steinacher, Nazis auf der Flucht: Wie Kriegsverbrecher über Italien nach Übersee entkamen 365 ANNUAL REVIEW Reinhold Gärtner: Austria 2008 369 LIST OF AUTHORS 376 INTRODUCTION Fritz Plasser and Günter Bischof The seven years of Wolfgang Schüssel’s chancellorship (2000-2007) represent a departure from traditional policies and governmental style in Austria. They are also characterized by passing a reform agenda that will have lasting impact. As a consequence of his governing style, Schüssel was prepared to accept a greater intensity in domestic political conflict and policy innovations. He cast aside long-standing traditions in the formation of post-World War II national governments when he took office in February 2000. First, the “Schüssel era” ended the reign of grand coalition governments that had dominated Austrian national politics since 1987 (following in the postwar tradition of such grand coalition governments from 1945 to 1966). Second, in spite of massive and unprecedented resistance from Thomas Klestil, Austria’s president in 2000 when the Schüssel government was formed, Schüssel launched a coalition government with Jörg Haider’s Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ), the right-wing populist and enfante terrible in the Austrian political arena since the mid-1980s. A reluctant President Klestil appointed Schüssel chancellor of an ÖVP/FPÖ “small” coalition government. Although the Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP) had suffered a severe defeat at the polls in the fall 1999 national elections—placing third behind the FPÖ for the first time in postwar political history—the shrewd political negotiator Schüssel managed to finagle himself into the position of chancellor. For the first time since 1970 when the Josef Klaus government was voted out of office, the ÖVP seized the Federal Chancellor’s office on the Ballhausplatz again. Managing to become chancellor in 2000 was Schüssel’s strategic masterpiece of sorts. It showed his readiness to take political risks and demonstrated his superb tactical skills in the minefield of Austria’s quotidian contentious political infighting. None of Schüssel’s predecessors at the helm of Austrian politics entered office under comparably dramatic circumstances. Daily protests and demonstrations by his numerous detractors on the Left 2 The Schüssel Era in Austria overshadowed the first weeks of his government’s activities. Critical pundits and commentators described his chancellorship as a definite break with the consensual tradition of Austrian politics. A stubborn Schüssel did not budge, even though he found himself confronted domestically by the stubborn resistance of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs (SPÖ), which emerged as the strongest party on the polls in 1999, but was not successful in finding coalition partners. The SPÖ found itself ill-suited for the oppositional role it undertook for the first time in thirty years. Internationally, the new Schüssel government found itself utterly isolated for a few months by the novel sanctions launched by the governments of the fourteen remaining states of the European Union. The EU-14 sanctions actually represented an embargo of communications and the end of direct talks and negotiations with the chancellor of the ÖVP/FPÖ-government. Schüssel was treated as a leper and outcast in the European political arena. These sanctions were rescinded in the fall of 2000 when relations between the heads of governments of the fourteen states of the European Union and the Schüssel government were normalized. During this phase, another defining character trait of Wolfgang Schüssel’s became visible: his ability to cope with extraordinary stress and his iron will to stand up to political pressure coming from outside the country. In spite of this turbulent start to his chancellorship, Schüssel remained extremely active in domestic politics. Under the motto “speed kills,” he launched a host of political reform projects during his first year in office. He immediately set up special commissions to deal with restitution issues regarding former slave laborers exploited by the Nazis on Austrian terrain during World War II and Jewish victims whose property had been aryanized. Chancellor Schüssel was eager to remove unacceptable old blockages of economic and social policies; he was fighting political gridlock Austrian style. This brought out an additional trait of Schüssel’s political leadership style: his determination to forge ahead actively with new policies and bring about political change. Schüssel felt that the chancellor’s office offered a much broader range