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| Monday, 26 April 2004 |
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Austria to pick first female president or first socialist in 18 years VIENNA, Sunday (AFP) Austrians were voting Sunday to choose a new president who will either be the central European country's first female head of state or its first socialist president in 18 years. Polls were opening in staggered order, with a booth at Vienna airport ready for ballots at midnight Saturday (2200 GMT Saturday) and most other polling stations opening at 7 and 8 am (0500 and 0600 GMT) Sunday, according to the Austrian news agency APA. The last polling booths will close in Vienna at 5 pm (1500 GMT), with television estimates of results expected almost immediately after that. The campaign has generated little enthusiasm among Austria's six million voters but the result could have ramifications for conservative Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel. The election for the six-year president's mandate comes at about mid-term for Schuessel's government, which last month lost two crucial regional elections. A resounding victory for the Social Democratic candidate for president, deputy parliamentary speaker Heinz Fischer, 65, would reinforce the impression that Schuessel's popularity is fading. The conservative newspaper Die Presse was already writing Saturday as if Fischer, who is leading in opinion polls, had won, saying in an editorial column that "much is showing clearly that Heinz Fischer will be the new federal president." But columnist Andreas Unterberger said that if Fischer is to be a good president, he will have to abandon his current left-wing rhetoric in order to be realistic about Austria's need to reduce social welfare costs in order to compete in the global economy. The president, however, has only relative political importance as he holds an honorary post, with no peacetime executive powers even though he is nominally commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Benita Ferrero-Waldner, 55, Schuessel's foreign minister, is Fischer's opponent in the presidential race. If elected, she would be Austria's first woman president since the country was re-formed as a republic in 1955. She would also be the first president to have been born after World War II. Fischer would be the first socialist president since 1986, in a country where the left-right divide is clear between the two main parties, the conservative People's Party (OeVP), currently running the government along with the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), and the Social Democrat Party (SPOe), which leads the left-wing opposition. Fischer has a narrow lead in opinion polls, by 42 percent to 40 percent according to a Gallup survey in April. The most interesting aspect of the campaign has been the role played by far-right fervid nationalist Joerg Haider, whose FPOe has been the junior coalition partner since 2000, staying in power after the last legislative election in 2001 for a four-year term. Haider does not hold a government post, as he took a step back from national politics when the European Union reacted with condemnation and sanctions when the FPOe first entered the national government. But he remains a factor in almost any major political decision in the central European country. Haider has come out openly for Ferrero-Waldner since Fischer attacked him for comments he made in the early 1990s saying that Hitler's policies to reduce unemployment were good. Asked if Schuessel would be in trouble if Fischer won, political analyst Anton Pelinka said: "Yes, but not much. "No doubt, Ferrero's defeat would not be enough to destabilize his position," Pelinka said. Both candidates have said they would be willing to accept Haider in a government. Outgoing President Thomas Klestil, a former member of Schuessel's OeVP and now an independent, had opposed Haider joining the government. The Austrian president has the right to refuse to swear people in as ministers if he or she disapproves of their appointment. |
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