Most of the Austrian women’s organisations and projects are faced with the possibility that they will receive no or not enough state funding as a result of the controversial right–wing government’s decision to abolish the Ministry for Women’s Affairs. This not only means that women’s affairs have been demoted to a junior department in a sprawling Ministry of Social Affairs but also that the budget will come to about forty per cent of last year’s level.

This accords with the overall policy of the new government, comprising the conservative People’s Party and the populist right–wing Freedom Party, which defines its policy with regard to fifty per cent of the population basically as an integral part of family policy.

Vice–chancellor Susanne Riess-Passer claimed in a televised interview on February 8, 2000 that the former women’s ministry had been merely symbolic because it had no budget and no powers (both claims untrue). She used this argument to justify the ministry’s abolition altogether. There will not be a larger budget for women; at least not for independent organisations.

The new coalition partner, the right–wing Freedom Party, is not reticent in voicing its opinion on the role of NGOs. For thirty years, they claim, NGOs have received funding from a government lead by Social Democrats for doing nothing. This not only discredits the invaluable work done by NGOs in Austria (and world–wide) and disregards the recognition NGOs have received in all the relevant international bodies like the UN and the EU. It is slander.

Since it became clear that for the first time in Europe a party whose members praise the Nazi regime and play down its atrocities will be allowed into government, a wave of protest has spread across the country. Peaceful demonstrations by thousands of people are being held every evening. A big rally took place on February 19, 2000 in which about a quarter of a million demonstrators from all over Austria participated.

We urge you to support the women’s NGOs in their struggle to survive and all Austrians who are strictly against allowing racists and neo–fascists to govern a country in the European Union!

Please write letters of protest to the new Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel who is mainly responsible for bringing the Freedom Party into government:

([email protected]); and to

Austrian President Thomas Klestil ([email protected])

Please also support us on an international level and address your governments to put further pressure on this shameful Austrian government, address the media in your country to keep reporting on the situation.

Thank you very, very much!

Verena & Birgit,WAVE Office,

c/o Information Centre Against Violence, Austrian Women’s Shelter Network, Hofgasse 9/1/4 A–1050,

Vienna, Austria, phone: 0043-1-5482720; fax:0043.1.5482720.27 <[email protected]>

web site:<http://www.wave-network.org>

I am writing on behalf of my organisation, The Green Socialist Network. Our organisation is at the forefront of libertarian socialism and had looked to your country as one of the most politically stable in Europe. However, I must express the GSN’s revulsion at the inclusion of the Freedom Party in the new coalition government for your country, a party that represents the most extreme racist and fascist ideas in Europe today.

We fully understand that you have got both the Peoples Party and the Freedom Party to sign statements committing them to democracy. It is our concern that, as with Adolf Hitler in Germany, many promises were made only to be broken later and launch Europe and the world in to the bloodiest conflict ever seen.

We believe our concerns are confirmed by the speeches and writings of Jorge Haider, leader of the Freedom Party. Speeches that have favoured Hitler’s approach to employment and supported the Waffen SS.

We regard it as an insult to all who suffered under Nazism that you, as President of Austria, can sanction the Freedom Party in government and with the majority of ministerial posts. We also regard it as very dangerous; your action will be seen to legitimise every pocket of fascist and racist activism in Europe however small. Already, we see reports of the Northern League in Italy supporting Haider openly.

It is our hope that you listen to the protest of the vast majority of the Austrian people, other nations within the EU and elsewhere and groups like ourselves who do not want to start the new century with the worst elements of the last. Please, for the sake of humanity, take immediate steps to reverse your decision and earn Austria the praise it deserves rather than condemnation.