-hun er den første borgerlige partilederen i Europa som inviterer et høyrepopulistisk parti i regjering.
Vi hadde vel også Jörg Haider i regjering i Østerrike tidlig 2000 tallet, kan vel ikke betegnes som en suksess. Nå husker jeg ikke foranledning hvorfor/hvordan han havnet der men bråk ble det husker jeg.
In 2000, Haider's Freedom Party and the People's Party formed a coalition government. This caused widespread outrage both in Austria and the rest of Europe. The heads of government of the other fourteen EU members decided to cease cooperation with the Austrian government, as it was felt in many countries that the
cordon sanitaire against coalitions with parties considered as right-wing extremists, which had mostly held in Western Europe since 1945, had been breached. For several months, other national leaders shunned diplomatic contacts with members of the Schüssel government. Supporters of the government often blamed social democrats and President
Thomas Klestil for these sanctions, and questioned their loyalty to the country.
The EU leaders soon saw that their measures were counterproductive and returned to normality during the summer of 2000, even though the coalition remained unchanged. (See
Austria legislative election, 1999.)
At the end of 2000, Jörg Haider stepped down from the leadership of the Freedom Party. This was widely regarded as a cynical move to appease foreign criticism, as he appeared to continue to control the party from behind the scenes, with
Susanne Riess-Passer who was the following party chairwoman being only pro-forma in charge. Haider proclaimed that his move was just the fulfillment of his promise to Carinthian FPÖ voters he gave prior to the election that had been held in the same year