Austria's far-right parties join forces (correction)

Dec 16, 2009, 17:26 GMT

Vienna - A part of the late Joerg Haider's rightist party joined forces with the far-right Freedom Party Wednesday, with both groups aiming to combine to become at least the second-strongest political force in Austria.

Both national parties won 28.2 per cent of the vote each in last year's parliamentary elections. The government parties, the Social Democrats and the centre-right People's Party, won 29 per cent and 26 per cent respectively.

The Alliance for the Future of Austria in Carinthia province and the Freedom Party are to cooperate closely in a 'unification of the third political force,' Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache said, using a term for the far-right camp.

The groups plan to campaign jointly for the next elections, scheduled for 2013, and to form a joint caucus in the National Council, Austria's parliament.

The Freedom Party and the Carinthian Alliance members currently hold a total of 39 of the legislature's 183 seats. The remaining 15 alliance representatives will not be asked to join the grouping.

Strache said the new movement would fight against 'uncontrolled mass immigration and fraudulent applications for refugee status.'

The Alliance split from the Freedom party in 2005 and was led by Haider until he died in the autumn of 2008 in a car accident in Carinthia, where he was governor.

'It's good to be back home,' Carinthian Alliance leader Uwe Scheuch said at a joint press conference.

Since Haider's death, the Alliance had been embroiled in an internal struggle, with politicians in the southern province of Carinthia following a more conservative path than the more liberal national organization.

Scheuch said that the issues of introducing gay marriage and the liberal economic policies of party chief Josef Bucher had been especially divisive.

The Alliance is changing its name to Freedom Party in Carinthia, the only of the country's nine provinces where it is strong enough to be represented in a regional parliament.

The Social Democrats mocked the frequent splits and reunification in the rightist camp. 'One cannot have trust in these turncoats,' Executive Secretary Laura Rudas said. 'This is an ideological community which propagates positions of the extreme right,' she added.