Austria: FPO splits (1)
01 January 1991
Austria: FPO splits
artdoc May=1993
The far-right Freiheitliche Partei Osterreichs (FPO), or Freedom
Party, has split following the departure of five of their MPs,
including deputy-leader Heide Schmidt. They have formed a rival
parliamentary faction, the Liberal Forum, in protest at the
increasingly xenophobic and extremist positions of party leader,
Jorg Haider.
The split follows the failure of Haider's petition `Austria
First', which demands an immediate halt to immigration and the
segregation of foreign children, to attain the million signatures
that he predicted. Nonetheless, the petition was signed by
417,000 people and will be the subject of a parliamentary debate.
In February, almost a quarter of a million people took part in
a demonstration in Vienna to protest at the petition and its
attempt to provoke racial violence.
European 25.2.93; IRR European Race Audit No.3; Voice 2.2.93.
Statewatch vol 3 no 2 March-April 1993