COMPROMISE ON BILINGUAL TOWN SIGNS FALLS APART

UNCLAS VIENNA 002158

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/AGS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM AU
SUBJECT: COMPROMISE ON BILINGUAL TOWN SIGNS FALLS APART

REFS: A) Vienna 2097 B) Vienna 185

THIS MESSAGE IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Chancellor Schuessel's latest effort to
broker a broad-based compromise on additional bilingual
(German-Slovenian) town signs in the southern state of
Carinthia has fallen short. The Chancellor had hoped to
dispose of this long-standing irritant by passing an
amendment to the Minorities Act in parliament July 14.
The issue is now likely to figure in the campaign for
national elections on October 1 (ref a). End summary.

SCHUESSEL'S LATEST EFFORT AT COMPROMISE FALLS SHORT
-------------- --------------


2. (SBU) The compromise Schuessel's OVP-BZO coalition
submitted to parliament July 14 foresaw dozens of
additional bilingual town signs in the province. This
was Schuessel's latest and most serious effort to break
years of political deadlock over Governor Joerg Haider's
stubborn resistance to a 2001 constitutional court ruling
ordering local authorities to put up more bilingual town
signs in mixed-language areas of Carinthia (ref b).


3. (SBU) Schuessel had managed this time to get all
players on board -- Haider, the internally divided
representatives of the Slovene minority, Carinthia's
veterans' organization, and the opposition Social
Democrats (SPO) whose votes the government would need for
the two-thirds majority to pass a constitutional
amendment. The deal fell apart, however, over provisions
regarding possible additional bilingual town signs after

2010. In the face of last-minute opposition by Slovene
groups, the national SPO refused to back the compromise
supported by its Carinthian chapter.

REACTIONS: PLEASE TRY AGAIN
--------------


4. (SBU) President Heinz Fischer urged parties to
continue efforts to find a broad-based solution in
conformity with the minority rights enshrined in Article
7 of Austria's 1955 State Treaty. One of the three
Slovene organizations in Carinthia presented the case to
EU Commissioner Franco Frattini, who promised his office
would look into the matter.


5. (SBU) COMMENT: Schuessel will seek to put the blame
squarely on the SPO and the minority representatives who
ultimately rejected the deal. However, the failure of
this latest compromise initiative will also play into the
hands of Joerg Haider, who will continue to exploit the
emotional issue of bilingual towns signs during the
election campaign. There is now little prospect for a
political solution before the October 1 elections.

McCaw