Netwatch

FEBRUARY 5: The two weeks of diplomatic whipping that Austria has absorbed over the inclusion of Jeorg Haider's anti-immigrant Freedom Party in its new government has been quite extraordinary. Today, that coalition government took office at a tense ceremony, as protesters clashed with riot policemen outside, and the diplomatic breach widened.

Washington quickly recalled its ambassador `for consultations,' and European governments began downgrading their relations with Austria. Yet Italy had a neo-Fascist party in its government in 1994, and Europe did not threaten to blackball its diplomats, nor did the Belgian foreign minister say it would be immoral to ski in the Italian Alps. And many European countries to say nothing of the Eastern European ones lining up to join have had Communists in government who have made excuses for Stalin or other dictators.

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