The liberal party of Holland, VVD, contends that neo-Nazism is rife in the Austrian Liberal party, the FPO, and is trying to have it ousted from the International Liberal Union.
Relations between the two were embittered when the chairman of the Austrian party, Joergen Haider, refused to dissociate himself from neo-Nazi personalities and publications cited in a letter from Dr. Louis Ginjaar, the Dutch Liberal party chairman.
Haider, who is premier of the Austrian province of Carinthia, planned to attack the Dutch Liberals on their own turf during an official visit to Holland this week.
He canceled it at the last minute on the advice of the Austrian ambassador in The Hague, Heinrich Pfusterschmidt.
The reason was that the recently established Austrian Committee in Holland has been urging Dutch tourists to avoid Carinthia because of widespread neo-Nazism there.
The committee is headed by Dick Houwaart, a journalist who is a past president of the Anne Frank Foundation.
Haider told reporters in an interview in the provincial capital of Klagenurtth that the largescale presence of Dutch tourists in Carinthia this summer was “the best answer” to the campaign by Houwaart.
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