Haider touches a raw nerve

By Thomas Abraham

LONDON, FEB. 22. Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but the British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, is neither flattered nor amused. The Austrian right wing leader, Mr. Joerg Haider, seen throughout Europe as a right wing xenophobe appears to be ardently wooing the British Prime Minister.

Mr. Haider is convinced that he is nothing more harmful than a central European version of Mr. Blair, and in an article published in the Daily Telegraph newspaper today declared there were `amazing similarities' between himself and the British Prime Minister.

Mr. Blair, who sees himself as a good liberal politician of the centre left, is clearly irritated by the comparison and is doing his best to distance himself from Mr. Haider's unwelcome attentions. A Downing Street spokesman sniffily dismissed Mr. Haider's overtures, and said ``the idea that there are genuine similarities between the two is so risible that I don't think it is worth wasting our breath.''

Mr. Haider however is not easily rebuffed, and he has used Mr. Blair's own `new Labour' language to illustrate the supposed closeness between the two. In the newspaper article, Mr. Haider says that both he and Mr. Blair were free of the `ideological ballast' of left and right. Normally, Mr. Blair is proud to acknowledge that he freed the Labour party from its ideological roots, and sees himself as a pragmatic politician with no real ideology. But when Mr. Haider draws this comparison, it clearly hurts.

Mr. Haider says that like Mr. Blair, he too wants to reform the welfare state. ``Both parties want to escape from the rigidity of the welfare state without creating social injustice. They want a fair chance for more self sufficient citizens to develop their real potential instead of state hand-outs which can only perpetuate the poverty trap,'' Mr. Haider wrote.

Unfortunately for Mr. Blair, that sentence could have come out of a Labour party document. Mr. Haider says that his Freedom Party, ``like Labour, stands for equal opportunity, fairness, responsibility and trust.''

In what is perhaps the unkindest cut of all, Mr. Haider takes a dig at the British Government's desire to cut down on refugees and asylum seekers, and says that his party ``is arguable less tough on asylum seekers and immigrants than Labour and Blair.'' In a parting shot, he adds `` If Blair is not extreme, then nor is Haider.''

There are clearly superficial similarities between the two politicians: both are young, charismatic and determined to overthrow the baggage of the past. The big difference however which Mr. Haider never mentions is that there is one item of baggage which Mr. Blair never carried, and which Mr. Haider appears to be very reluctant to throw out: a sympathy with Nazism. There lies the difference.

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