The bright side of Haider sanctions
It was a remarkable moment in EU history. Die Zeit recalls the year 2000 when 14 member states "broke new ground in European interior policy" with a decision to embark on a diplomatic boycott of Austria and the then Austrian chancellor, Wolfgang Schüssel, if the extreme-right populist Jörg Haider was included in a governing coalition. The weekly notes that the "EU did not have the means" to counter anti-democratic forces, even though "Europe was understood to be a community with shared values." Nothing like it has ever been undertaken since. Perhaps because the plan was misguided. There was no justification for the initiative in EU treaties, and Vienna complained that the boycott was in violation of European law. Worse still, placing Austria in "diplomatic quarantine did not have the desired effect." In fact, it reinforced Schüssel's position, and the EU was obliged to back down and abandon its sanctions in September of 2000. However, as Die Zeit explains, "in accordance with the dialectic of history," the initiative was not in vain. "Without the sanctions, Schüssel would never have been able to prepare the ground for Haider's political downfall." Now with the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU has given itself the means to intervene to protect democracy, the rule of law and the rights of minorities.
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