Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European ...

Austria 73
because ‘foreignness’ arguably constitutes a special threat to surrogate forms
of identity.
Ethnic cleavages and national character
Ethnically rooted in both Germanic and Slavic heritages, Austrian society
was shaped by Western, Italian and Eastern influences which are reflected
today in the cultural and linguistic differences between the Western Alpine
regions and the Eastern lowlands, in the tension between the rural traditionalism
of the provinces and the urban progressivism of Vienna and in
the clash between a deeply Catholic and profoundly secular subculture.
Of Austria’s nine federal states, Carinthia merits separate consideration.
The southernmost Austrian state was shaped politically by ethnic cleavages
and competing cultural influences. Considered Austria’s stronghold of pan-
German nationalist thinking, it has been marked by persistent tensions
between its German-speaking and Slovenian populations. For decades after
the war, the latent conflict between the two sides continued to mobilize
German nationalist and right-wing sentiments that had abated in the rest of
the country. As the only political party whose past agenda included an
explicit commitment to German (cultural) nationalism, the Freedom Party
was better positioned than its competitors to take advantage of these cleavages.
Haider’s speeches to war veterans and (anti-Slovenian) ‘resistance
fighters’ along with the nationalist celebrations of Carinthia’s deliverance
from annexation by its Slavic neighbour explain, in part, his popularity in
that state.
The historical weakness of Conservatives is also related to the fact that the
Catholic Church was seen as too closely aligned with Slovenian interests.
When the SPÖ’s hegemony in the region collapsed due to political scandals
and internal conflict, the Freedom Party therefore emerged as the dominant
force. In this, Carinthia is an anomaly in Austria and provided the centrally
important powerbase from where Haider and his party launched their bid
for national success. Taking advantage of Carinthia’s authority under federal
law, the state continues to pander to anti-Slovenian interests and has
served as a test bed for populist national policy initiatives.
External influences
From the latter half of the 1980s, Austrian politics were increasingly influenced
by external developments, in particular integration into the Single
Market, the European Union (EU) and European Monetary Union (EMU).
However, the transition of Eastern Europe, the Balkan wars and a massive
influx of foreign immigrants presented the country with a staggering array
of political challenges for which policymakers had to devise coping strategies.
For instance, growing fiscal problems and the internationalization of
the economy required the privatization of state-owned industrial assets,
resulting in a net loss of 70,000 out of 102,000 jobs − previously filled by