Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-02-Speech-3-029"
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"en.20000202.4.3-029"2
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"Madam President, as a representative of the Freedom Party, I respect the concerns some of my fellow MEPs have with regard to the democratic developments in Austria. My reaction may come as a surprise when I say that I personally am at a loss as to the heightened sensitivity displayed towards Austria in matters of respect for human rights, having a sense of responsibility for one’s own past, and the stability of democracy.
Austria must take the responsibility on its own shoulders for the often dubious image other countries tend to have of it, rightly or wrongly. The refusal of our government, down through the years, to acknowledge our complicity in the horrors of the Second World War, together with their refusal to properly compensate the Jewish victims and those forced into hard labour, have done a great deal to bolster this negative image. This FPÖ has now entered into a coalition with the ÖVP, due to the outcome of elections held on 3 October 1999, when the previous government was voted out of office. This is the citizen of a state’s prerogative, for it is the founding principle of a democracy. When the talks between the SPÖ and ÖVP broke down, the Socialists attempted to form a minority government and asked the FPÖ for their support.
We were offered three ministerial posts – you can read it for yourself in the newspapers – the very party that is being denounced as fascistic here! When we suddenly refused this offer, an inflammatory and rabble-rousing propaganda campaign began that is beyond our comprehension to this day. The FPÖ party is established in Austria’s political landscape. The head of the government of one of the nine provinces belongs to this party and it is involved in all the other provincial governments. What many Austrians are wondering today is why their democratic decision has suddenly been interpreted as an expression of a fascistic cast of mind, and why the campaign did not begin until the Freedom Party rejected the support of a minority government comprising the SPÖ?
There is prejudice at work here, which – without going into our programme – is reducing the darkest hour of European history to a political spectacle. I am filled with disgust when certain of our opponents get mileage out of the millions of deaths that took place in the gas chambers of the concentration camps as cheap propaganda, as, for example, the Italian MEP Bertinotti did yesterday on Italian TV when he accused Mr Haider of denying the holocaust. Shame on you Mr Bertinotti! You might have run out of political arguments but that does not give you the right to use those who were murdered as cheap propaganda.
Denouncing a democratically elected politician as a Nazi does not make you an anti-fascist! On the contrary, you are deriding the true victims of National Socialism and playing down what the fascist dictators did. Your behaviour stems from your own prejudices, you are dispensing with any form of political debate and you are displaying precisely the kind of behaviour you claim to oppose. The attacks against Austria’s new government and the attempts to exert political influence in a Member State are an insult to the Austrian people. That is why we are indebted to the Commission for taking a stance that separates it from the rest.
The new coalition agreement is about reforming a democracy, the rights of the opposition, commitment to compensating those forced into hard labour…."@en1
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