Sir, - So Mr Haider has done it again. In what the press called an "outburst", but what was really an interview given to a Turkish newspaper, he pointed out that the difficulty with many of the 170,000 Turks living in Austria is that they did not wish to integrate. He also suggested that the percentage of foreign (non-German-speaking) children in primary schools should be reduced to 30 per cent.
The trouble is that most of Mr Haider's statements contain some truth. They are so divisive because they are half-truths. The other trouble is that many of his vociferous critics secretly think what he says aloud. Herein lies the secret of his success.
I know a married couple in Vienna whose credentials as antifascists are 100 per cent sound. Last year I was amazed to learn that they were considering putting their children into a feepaying primary school because they feared that the identity of their children as Austrians and German speakers could no longer be guaranteed by the state school system. My friends most certainly have not become fascists, not do they vote for Mr Haider. Their worries about their children's education must be taken seriously.
To be honest, I am not quite sure where I stand in this regard. What I am sure about, however, is that in Ireland the main reason why so many parents send their children to fee-paying schools is snobbism. This State, like Austria, provides a perfectly sound education. I was therefore astonished to learn that a prominent member of the former Democratic Left (a party which has come out against fee-paying schools) registered his children in a fee-paying school. I can see the reason why my Viennese friends distrust the quality of the education their children receive in non-fee-paying schools with a high percentage of non-German-speaking foreign pupils. I cannot see any threat to Irish children in non-fee-paying schools here.
The former leader of the extinct Democratic Left Party, Proinsias de Rossa, is a staunch supporter of the diplomatic sanctions against Austria. He should be aware of the danger from within his own country. If even former members of his far-left party feel the need to protect their children from the bad influences of Irish working-class pupils, how much more fearful would the reaction of the majority of Irish parents be if schools were full of Turks, Bosnians, Rumanians and Ukrainians with no English?
It should be remembered that when Ireland took in 200 Bosnian refugees, and the Irish media outdid each other in praise of Irish generosity, Austria took in 30,000. Austria has fewer than seven million inhabitants and almost a million foreigners. If Ireland had to cope with a similar situation the country might be awash with Haiders. - Yours, etc.,
Dr Herbert Herzmann, German Department, University College Dublin, Dublin 4.