This is the crossroads of our continent. Nor, on its refugee record, is Austria any sort of exceptional case. Of course there are laws and restrictions to gag over now, as there are in every country of Europe. But the record holds no particular shame. Final asylum decisions take three to six months.
Legislation insists that foreign workers get the going Austrian wage.
The moderate conservatives were there to spread consensus and divide the spoils. It sounds claustrophobic and cloying. Austria's economy flourished, the country was smoothly run - but nothing ever changed. Jorg Haider didn't set his suitcase on the portals of power by peddling nostrums about the wonders of the SS or the war crimes of Churchill. And, on the issues, he was often right.