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Mr. Haider and the Press

by Al Dunsmuir

G21 Irregular

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There is no doubt that some of Austrian Freedom Party politician Joerg Haider's policies are unpleasant. What is even more disgusting are the actions of some of his neo-Nazi followers. Yet, what must also be condemned is the West's attitude towards him.

The Western press has devoted columns to Haider's praise of the Waffen SS, and of Hitler's employment policies. However, very little has been mentioned of the fact that those statements were made several years ago. Little mention is made of the fact that Haider has since back-tracked on what he said then, and that not only are his immigration policies third or fourth down on the Freedom Party's priority list, but that they are not too different from several of Austria's Centre Right Party's policies.

When Haider suggested that Churchill was a war criminal because of his part in the bombing of Dresden, every British tabloid stepped up the analogies to Hitler. Just recently, a "quality" paper, the London Times, (Wednesday 9th February), in praising Prince Charles's "postponement" of a visit to Austria, alleged that the Union Jack, often a symbol of nationalistic violence, would be "inappropriate [if Charles was to use it in Austria as symbolic of a modern image] because that does not fit Austria at the moment."

The clearly patronising subjectivity and double standards of the Western press in recent weeks, (The Times was far less critical of Charles's attendance at Emperor Hirohito's funeral than of Haider's views), has not yet led to false accusations against Haider for all the world's ills in the last 100 years. But just wait until he actually does something wrong.

As the furor over Haider dies down across Europe, what news is replacing him?

• In Spain it has been, firstly, race riots. The south-eastern Spanish town of El Ejido saw 48 hours of violence by racist groups that left 52 immigrants from mainly Morocco hospitalised, and four houses and one factory burnt down, following the news that a local woman was killed by a deranged immigrant. Secondly, it was the comments of the Atletico Madrid soccer team ex-chairman, Jesus de Gil, who said, "life was better under Franco", (the fact his soccer team did quite well under Franco is surely entirely coincidental.)

  Jesus Gil, a politician with a highly turbulent past, who Franco personally released from jail in the 1960's, and who was recently jailed again for fraud, made the statement that he saw himself a "victim of brutal persecution" by Aznar's (right wing) People's Party. Although it was essentially an extremely selfish comment, as he feels that Franco would have granted immunity to illegal practices by politicians, Jesus Gil wields enormous power in Spain as he is Mayor of Marbella and leader of the "Grupo Independiente Liberal" party, which means that the comment played into the far right's hands.
  
  

• In Italy, again with soccer, supporters waved racist banners throughout the country's stadiums. Most notably, one --- at Lazio --- saluted, "the tiger, Arkan."
  
  
• In France, nationalist and anti-immigration politician Le Pen has been all over the front pages after he criticised Haider for being too left wing. Le Pen believes that Haider has betrayed the far right cause as he does not now favour the disbandment of the European Union, and has relaxed his opposition to non-Austrians in Austria to the extent that everyone born there can feel safe, and even some with a foreign family tree are voting for him. Also in France, (still with soccer) Gaullists have called for a reduction in the amount of Africans coming to France to play.
  
  
• Finally, in Britain, a recent poll found that 97% of those questioned wanted all the Afghani hostages returned to their country immediately. In the last two weeks, usage of racist websites - often linked with soccer hooliganism - has gone up.

But then rationality wouldn't sell many papers.