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Strategies & Market Trends : Bosco & Crossy's stock picks,talk area -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bosco who wrote (3100)	2/2/2000 2:49:00 AM
From: Crossy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 37387

Bosco, no problem for me to respond. Ok, first of all I'm quite surprised about the recent developments. My own take, since I voted for the conservatives is that who forms our government is a matter to be decided in our country and nowhere else. Imagine the US elected George Bush Jr. president, the Social-Demcorats of the world don't like him and threaten to cut of ties ? Think this is weird. However I'm pretty concerned with the present situation. I do think that the attacks by Mr. Haider, the Freedom Party's chairman contributed to much of the tone of the reactions. HE's sort of a bad boy to the foreign press, albeit he moderated his tone considerably in the past. The funny thing is that the Freedom Party is not new to government at all. From 1982 to 1986 that party, then led by Norbert Steger formed a government with the social democrats, under chancellor Sinowatz and later Vranitzky. Since Austria has a proven track record as a stable democracy, adherence to human rights (we ratified the European Declaration of human rights FULLY in contrast to many other countries on our continent) and member of the European Union (where we always carried thru our responisbilities) so I don't think anything should change here. It's true that the Freedom Party wants to end immigration for now but that has to be judged versus the fact that Germany and Austria accepted a disproportionate high share of the total emigrants entering Europe. In the memorandum of understanding btw. the conservatives and the Freedom party both political forces commit to the European Union including the expansion of the Union and the EURO-currency, which resembles an important concession of the freedom party. If you listen carefully to the communiqu‚s you will find that it'S not the European Comisson that severes its ties. Their bulletin just talks about close "monitoring" of developments in our country which they have any right to do. It'S the 14 member states that are trying to influence the conservatives by applying this sort of pressure, which I consider to be highly improper. OTOH, don'T forget that most of the European countries are currently governed by socialists or social democrats and it doesn't surprise me that they might try to aid the faltered social democrats of Austria with their moves. Finally many decisions in the European Union are still cast by unanimous vote. If this pressure doesn't stop, I can think of retailiations of our members thus in effect "blocking" things like "institutional reform" of the EU in effect. I wonder if that is a desired result. Another problem is the fact that anti-EU parties like many communist parties (now in Italy, France, Sweden) participate in the government of the respective countries. Interestingly this never posed any problem for the social democrats in Europe, since they are their "natural" allies. Then there was a government in Italy in the mid 90ies under Mr. Berlusconi where the post-fascistes (the AN - alliancia nationale) actively participated (under Mr. Fini). That party could be thought as way to the right of our Freedom Party and it was no problem for the other states. The current climate is very tense and I tell you this coalition is going to happen. 55% of the voters voted for the conservatives and the Freedom PArty which is a solid majority in parliament. Don't forget that after 30 years of rule our social democrats are relegated to the opposition bench. It'S really tough to relinquish power if you are that used to it - like our socialists, believe me. If we give in here and let others dictate our government that would be an alarming sign and a bad precedent. And polls are telling exactly this. However we have a job to do - to tell the world that we are still a democracy, comitted to values of human rights. The future will tell.. CROSSY