Right cashes in on euro vote

"Travelling circus" is a label which Eurosceptics apply to the frequently farcical nature of European Union politics. Over the coming few weeks the term may be even more apt than usual as Eurocrats attempt a balancing act worthy of the most daring acrobats. This will entail trying to soften their hostile tone towards an extreme-right party in Austria in order to prevent the rise of a kindred organisation in Denmark.

During the week three "wise men" appointed to investigate if the sanctions imposed on Austria's government by its EU partners should be lifted announced that they had finished their fact-finding mission about how Jrg Haider's Freedom Party has been behaving since it became part of the Vienna administration. The three - former EU commissioner Marcelino Oreja, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari and the director of a German research institute Jochen Frowein - are not expected to take much time mulling over what they discovered before they present their report. Most observers believe that this will almost certainly recommend that Austria should be welcomed back into the fold and although they have not been given any official deadline for delivering that message, there are signals that the referendum in Denmark about joining the euro on September 28 is concentrating their minds like nothing else.

The sanctions seem to have worked considerably in favour of the Danish parties and interest groups campaigning for a No vote. They have seized on the perception that this is an example of Brussels meddling in the internal affairs of one of the Union's smaller and newest countries. The EU, they believe, wants to control everything that happens in Denmark and Austria and if they decide to give up their krones to shop with euros, they will be capitulating to those efforts.

One of the most vocal participants in the no campaign is the Dansk Folkeparti (Danish People's Party), which in many ways appears to be even more extreme than the Freedom Party. The party has 13 members of parliament in Copenhagen, along with one MEP.

Over the past few weeks the DPP's leader, Pia Kjaersgaard, has impressed many voters by her combative performances in televised debates, some of them with the Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen.

As well as loathing everything the EU stands for, the DPP advocates the forced repatriation of refugees and the freezing of aid to developing countries which are not restricting the growth of their populations.

Although the latest opinion polls suggest that the referendum is likely to be carried by a slim majority, the publicity received by the DPP during the campaign could help it to considerably increase its support, potentially making Kjaersgaard a kingmaker in the way that Haider was in Austria after the general election late last year.

The way that the DPP has used the referendum has led critics to present the campaign as less a vote on the merits of joining the euro than one on isolating the extreme right.

Denmark's former EU commissioner and current farm minister Ritt Bjerregaard warned in the past few days that a No vote would play into the racist hands of the DPP.

Before the summer break Commission chief Romano Prodi told a joint press conference with the Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel that he was opposed to the continuation of the sanctions.

While many EU states see the sanctions team initiative as the best way to prevent the Austrian debacle from paralysing the conduct of EU affairs and the Union's planned eastward enlargement, they also do not want to hand Haider any propaganda victory. No doubt, however, he will milk the lifting of the sanctions for all it is worth.

More fundamentally, there remains the question as to whether their flirtation with power has led Freedom Party representatives to shed any of their more reactionary views. In theory, the wise men are only supposed to advocate the removal of the sanctions if they are happy that the Freedom Party adheres to democratic principles and the Austrian government can show that it follows enlightened policies on human rights and the treatment of minorities. Many feel that the conclusion of their report will be that it has, even if events on the ground suggest otherwise.

For example, the Deputy Mayor of Salzburg, Haider cronie Siegfried Mittendorfer, has urged a policy of "zero tolerance" towards Romas in the past few months, without apparently incurring the wrath of his party leadership.

Back in Denmark, a poll published late in the week indicated that 48% now intend to vote in favour of euro membership, compared to 44% against. But another published on Friday night found 44% opposed to euro membership compared with 43% in favour.

Despite the way some Yes campaigners have focused on the extreme- right's involvement in the No side, many other No campaigners are left-leaning in their politics.

Feminist Drude Dahlerup advocated that the euro and closer EU integration should be rejected because they have the potential to wreck the welfare state. "The Danish welfare state is very vulnerable, already under threat and the euro will threaten it more," she said.

Yet the willingness of left-leaning No campaigners to adopt strategic alliances with right-wingers also wanting to save the krone has left them open to ridicule from the Yes side.

Prominent MEP Jens Peter Bonde, who like Dahlerup belongs to the June Movement, is a good illustration of the politically promiscuous nature of the anti-euro brigade. Although he describes himself as progressive, he has formed alliances in the European Parliament with ultra-right French Catholics, the Ulster Unionist Jim Nicholson, pro- hunting lobbyists, maverick Greens and the late multi-millionaire Jimmy Goldsmith. The only thing which has bound this ragbag together has been a distrust of the European Union.

Whether the referendum is carried or not will not in itself make much difference for the monetary policy pursued by its government. The pro-EU Rasmussen pointed out during the week that the Danish krone is already linked to the euro and that the Copenhagen economic ministries shadow the policy of the European Central Bank. In an interview with the influential Wall Street Journal, he said: "I don't see any indication that the ECB would treat us less friendly in the event of a no vote."

Denmark, Sweden and Britain opted not to adopt the euro in its initial phase, while Greece is scheduled to enter the European Montetary Union at the end of this year. Eleven of the 15 EU countries launched the common currency on January 4, 1999, for corporate and investment transactions, hoping it would increase European integration and virtually free trade. Euro coins and bank notes will be introduced on January 1, 2002.

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