Leader of Austria's Freedom Party Offers to Step Down

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, November 26, 2002

Leader of Austria's Freedom Party Offers to Step Down

A day after the far-right Freedom Party took a beating in national elections, its contentious leader, Joerg Haider, said Monday that he would resign as governor of the southern state of Carinthia.

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A day after the far-right Freedom Party took a beating in national elections, its contentious leader, Joerg Haider, said Monday that he would resign as governor of the southern state of Carinthia.

Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel and his center-right People's Party were the clear victors in Austria's national elections Sunday, winning the party's largest plurality in 36 years and ensuring a continuation of a government focused on tax cuts, privatization and integration into the European Union.

At the same time, the results were a great disappointment for the Social Democratic Party. But above all, it was a blow to the extreme-right Freedom Party of Joerg Haider, the polarizing nationalist whose recent antics--a couple of visits with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, for example--were considered the main reason that his party won just 10 percent of the popular vote.

That is a precipitous drop from the stunning 27 percent that the Freedom Party captured in 1999, and a weak third place that may spell the end of the Freedom Party's coalition with Mr. Schussel's People's Party, if not the end of Mr. Haider's influence in national politics here.

If Mr. Haider's move is genuine, it could help his party gain back the confidence of Austria's center-right People's Party, its current partner in a coalition government.

Source: Agencies

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