Former Chancellor Bruno Kreisky resigned Thursday from his posts in the Socialist Party to protest the selection Wednesday of People’s Party leader Alois Mock as Foreign Minister. The two parties comprise Austria’s coalition government.
Socialist leaders said Thursday that they hoped Kreisky would reconsider his decision to step down as honorary chairman of the party and president of the Institute for International Policy and the Renner Institute, his party’s academy.
According to a Socialist daily newspaper, Kreisky said he couldn’t go along with a foreign policy designed by Mock, who was head of the People’s Party during Kurt Waldheim’s successful run for the Presidency last spring. Ugly anti-Semitic statements surfaced during the campaign as the World Jewish Congress repeatedly raised allegations about Waldheim’s Nazi affiliations and military activities during World War II.
Kreisky, who was controversial himself for his contacts with the PLO, Libya and North Korea, allegedly is afraid that a Conservative Foreign Minister will be unable to diminish the harm done by the Waldheim campaign to Austria’s image abroad.
Moreover, foreign policy had been a Socialist domain for many years. Kreisky served as Secretary of State in the Foreign Ministry and later as Foreign Minister before serving as Chancellor from 1970-83.
VARIED REACTIONS TO KREISKY’S DECISION
Reaction varied to Kreisky’s decision, telephoned Wednesday night to newly elected Chancellor Franz Vranitzky from the hospital bed here where Kreisky is ill with influenza. Mock called it incomprehensible, and both Vranitzky and Socialist Party chairman Fred Sinowatz said they wanted to ask Kreisky whether his decision was irrevocable.
Vranitzky down-played the importance of a Conservative Foreign Minister, explaining that foreign policy would be designed through close cooperation within government. He added that Austria has more important problems than a struggle over Mock.
The Socialist Party Council approved the coalition agreement Thursday, with 96 percent of 230 delegates voting affirmative.
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