Joerg Haider nominated to lead far-right Freedom Party once again

Описание: (12 Sep 2002)

1. Exterior Marriott hotel
2. Close up of sign
3. Delegate and Social Minister Herbert Haupt arriving for meeting
4. Joerg Haider arriving
5. Wide of meeting
6. Briefing
7. SOUNDBITE (German) Herbert Scheibner, Defence Minister:
"The Party board has unanimously decided to put forward the following nominations for these positions in the party at the Party convention of the 21st September. Federal Head of party, Dr Joerg Haider...(camera zooms into Haider)"
8. SOUNDBITE (German) Joerg Haider, Nominee for Leader of the Freedom Party:
"Those of you who know me, know me as proactive, as the one who invests a lot of energy and gives his best to show the Freedom Party and also the Austrian public that they will have this (tax) reform, that they have supported for so many years, on their side and also in the future."
9. Cutaway
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Joerg Haider, Nominee for Leader of the Freedom Party:
"And I accepted because we are at the moment we are in a difficult situation and facing the election campaign. The majority of my party think that I have an ambition and the ability to run this election campaign in the best way and that is why I decided to do it."
11. Cutaway of photographers

STORYLINE:

Austria's Freedom Party nominated far-rightist Joerg Haider on Wednesday to be its leader once again following a party feud that led to the resignation of key leaders and the collapse of the governing coalition.

Haider's nomination comes less than two and a half years after he resigned from the post as part of a deal that brought the party into a coalition with the centrist People's Party. His confirmation as party chief at a special convention September 20 is considered certain.

The success of the Haider led Freedom Party in 1999 elections generated anxiety abroad due to anti-foreigner and anti-European comments made by party officials and to Haider's remarks in support of Adolf Hitler's employment policy. The European Union briefly slapped sanctions on Austria in 2000 to protest that party's role in the government.

After leaving the party's chairmanship, Haider became governor of Carinthia province. Earlier this year, he drew criticism for visiting Saddam Hussein in Iraq and for inviting European far-right politicians to Austria. On Wednesday, a Freedom Party executive committee meeting in Linz nominated Haider, 52, to be reinstated as party chairman.

Apparently acknowledging he remains too controversial to play a prominent role in a future government, party leaders chose Herbert Haupt, currently minister of health and social affairs, to lead the party in upcoming elections.

The changes in party leadership come after Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel of the People's Party called Monday for new elections to end a political crisis. A day earlier, key Freedom Party leaders resigned saying the conflict with Haider had made the party's work impossible.

Those resigning included vice chancellor and party chief Susanne Riess-Passer.

The party has been plagued for months by a power struggle between Riess-Passer and Haider. In recent weeks, the rift seemed to center on a government decision to delay passage of a tax reform package to benefit lower-income groups. But it later turned out the main sticking point was the European Union's planned eastward expansion, which the chancellor had repeatedly called "a core component" of government policy.


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