AUSTRIA:Politicians' freedom of thought and Austria's EU role are at stake in the election, writes Derek Scallyin Vienna
WHEN IRISH voters rejected the Lisbon Treaty in June, they started a chain reaction that, three weeks later, brought down Austria's grand coalition government.
After 18 months of bickering and political standstill, the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the conservative People's Party (ÖVP) went their separate ways, each blaming the other for the resulting snap election.
With just three weeks to polling day, the two parties are neck and neck in the opinion polls. But there is more at stake on September 28th than who will next take power in Vienna. The result will have far-reaching European implications and will answer a long-running question in Austria: is it possible to win an election without the help of the Kronenzeitungnewspaper?
The " Krone" is both Austria's smallest and largest newspaper, with a daily readership of nearly three million but only the size of an A4 sheet. Some 43 per cent of Austrians pick it up daily, making it proportionately the most widely read paper in the world.
The Kroneknows all too well how to wield that influence. It drummed up popular support for Austrian president Kurt Waldheim after his Nazi past was revealed in 1985; a decade ago its support helped the extreme-right populist Jörg Haider into power.
After backing Austria's EU accession in 1994, politicians in Vienna sat up and took notice when, earlier this year, the Kronelaunched an energetic campaign against it. Day in, day out, the newspaper attacks what it sees as endemic EU corruption and business-friendly policies it says hurt Austria's interests. The opening of Austria's border to eastern neighbours has, it says, driven up crime. In a dedicated section of its letters page, a reader described the EU this week as a "route back to slavery".
The campaign reflects and fuels a growing Austrian distrust of Brussels. Last month's Eurobarometer survey showed that just 28 per cent of the population have a positive view of the EU, making Austrians the most Eurocritical nation in the union - ahead of even the British.
Three months ago, when Ireland voted No to Lisbon, the Kronemoved its campaign up a gear.
The struggling SPÖ chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer, wrote a letter to the Krone, stating that "any future changes to the treaty that affect Austrian interests must be decided in Austria by a referendum".
The prospect of another referendum treaty hurdle caused jitters in Brussels and uproar in Vienna. The ÖVP, with a small lead in the polls, walked out of government, condemning Gusenbauer's "act of prostration before the Krone".
The letter backfired on Gusenbauer and undermined his already low standing among SPÖ colleagues, who were incensed that a fundamental change in the party's EU policy could be announced by decree in a tabloid newspaper.
So why did he do it? The smoke began to clear after the election was called, when Gusenbauer stood aside as lead candidate in favour of SPÖ transport minister Werner Faymann, the co-signatory on the Kroneletter.
A political veteran of 15 years and one of the SPÖ's most influential figures, Faymann is a close confidant of the 87-year-old Kronepublisher and editor-in-chief Hans Dichand, known as "Uncle Hans".
"Faymann is a technocrat, a smooth Sonny Boy and Dichand's protege," says Oliver Pink, political editor of Die Presse newspaper.
For weeks now, Faymann has been the subject of flattering news reports, opinion columns and - a feature unique to the Krone- political poems.
Competing newspapers have been both alarmed and amused, with Die Presse describing the Krone's political reports as "straight out of Pravda".
Analyses by the GfK polling agency suggest the campaign is bearing fruit. Of the 20 per cent of Austrians who read only the Krone, support for the ÖVP has dropped 19 per cent. "I've never seen anything like it," said Dr Peter Ulram, a political scientist and GfK analyst. "Populism in Austria has entered a new stage. The SPÖ has given up part of its decision-making authority to a non-political instance."
Faymann's apparent quid pro quo with the Kronehas alarmed the ÖVP - particularly since it has found itself in the tabloid's cross-hairs.
The party's chancellor candidate, Wilhelm Molterer, the outgoing finance minister, has been attacked for weeks as being either incompetent, "totally on the side of the EU", or both.
In that period, the ÖVP's poll lead has melted away and the party is now trailing the SPÖ.
"It's always been clear to us that Austria's place is as an active, confident player in the EU but, I'm sorry to say, I'm afraid there's been a change in the SPÖ," Molterer told The Irish Times.
"Their about-turn through a newspaperman throws a questionable light on politics in general. Politics cannot allow itself to become dependent on anything, neither business nor media. The firewall has to remain in place."
Across the Austrian media, political analysts have expressed concern that an SPÖ win will send politicians the message that it is dangerous to cross the Krone.
"In a country like Britain, the power of the Sunis weakened by the Mirrorand the broadsheets. In Austria, the Kronehas no equal," says Armin Thurnher, editor of Vienna city newspaper Falter. "Dichand has always had a nose for people's concerns and what people want to hear. He doesn't want Austria to leave the EU because people don't want that. But there is a market, and thus an economic motivation, for attacking the EU."
In the Kronenzeitungbuilding, few are prepared to discuss the paper's support for Faymann. Dichand's secretary says that the Kroneeditor "will not be contactable for the next time".
Some 14 floors below, chief political correspondent Dieter Kindermann is a little more forthcoming. "I try to write neutral, independent reports but that is not desired at present," he says. "Because I cannot hold the line of the editor-in-chief, the newspaper and I are parting company."