Austria's new government including the radical Freedom...

Austria's new government including the radical Freedom Party, led by the controversial Joerg Haider, was not well received by the European Union's other 14 member nations, who condemned the new coalition government with an unprecedented unanimity. Haider, who has been variously described both inside and outside the country as a "designer fascist," a neo-Nazi and a political chameleon, is a seductive orator, and that characteristic has dangerous connotations in Europe. However in Haider's case, there is no consistent policy underpinning it. The Freedom Party is not rightist in the traditional Anglo-American sense of the word. It rejects the reintroduction of the death penalty and abortion is a non-issue.