Haider is no liberal
From Mr Nigel Jones Sir: Lest silence be taken for consent and your readers deceived, may I take up a small space to answer Professor von Zug- bach's lengthy diatribe promoting Austria's Jorg Haider (Letters, 23 October).
If Haider, as the professor asserts, is a 'liberal' rather than a neo-fascist, why was his Freedom party expelled from the Liber- al International, the umbrella body repre- senting Europe's Liberal parties, and why
did the party's liberal wing defect to form a new grouping, the Liberal Forum?
If the Freedom party is as innocuous as the professor would have us believe, why has Israel announced that it will consider severing diplomatic relations if Haider enters the Austrian government, and why was Jean Marie le Pen of France's National Front the only politician congratulating Haider on his recent electoral success?
Professor von Zugbach charmingly char- acterises immigrants from Eastern Europe as 'undesirables'. A glance at the surnames in the Vienna telephone directory reveals that around half the resident population hail from the same parts, making Haider's racism as absurd as it is dangerous.
Fascism, as I understand it, comprises xenophobia, a leadership cult, a 'vertical' party structure, and a demagogic appeal to ignoble instincts. All these are characteris- tic of the Freedom party under Haider.
I have interviewed Haider and heard him speak. If he's a liberal, I'm Benito Mussolini. Nigel Jones History Today, 20 Old Compton Street, London W1
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