New Austrian poll shows Haider party crash in popularity

In general elections now, the FP would get just 17 per cent, a marginal one per cent ahead of the smallest parliamentary party, the Greens with 16 per cent, said the poll by the IMAS institute. Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's conservative People's Party (VP) would get a massive 36 per cent, well ahead of the Social Democrats (SP) with 31, said the poll.

It indicated a huge shift of popular opinion in the 15 months since the last general elections. The result then was SP 33.2 per cent, FP 26.9, VP 26.9, Greens 7.4. The poll, released in advance by the magazine Profil (Monday edition), said popular support for center-left Greens leader Alexander Van der Bellen had increased out of all proportion in the past 12 months.

In hypothetical direct elections for the chancellorship, nearly 30 per cent would choose pragmatic 56-year-old economics professor Van der Bellen as head of government. Only eight per cent would vote for ex-FP leader Joerg Haider, compared with 16 per cent a year ago. Incumbent Schuessel was top of this list with 44 per cent. But the poll said he was nowhere near the levels of his Social Democrat predecessors Franz Vranitzky and Viktor Klima at the height of their popularity.

A clear majority of Austrians also believed the FP had not yet reached the low point of its headlong plunge in popular support. Sixty-seven per cent predicted in the poll that the FP would lose in significance this year. Just 19 per cent answered "no" to this question. General elections need not be held in Austria until October 2003. But a major test of opinion will be Vienna City elections this year, possibly as early as in March or April.

(la/dpa)