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Memorial coin on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Austrian State Treaty. The signatures are from (left side) Wjatscheslaw Molotow, Iwan I. Iljitschow, Harold Macmillan, Sir Geoffrey Wallinger, and (right side) from John Foster Dulles, Llewellyn E. Thompson jr., Antoine Pinay, M. Roger Lalouette and Leopold Figl. |
| I was among that meager third voting against Austria joining the European Community in 1994. |
| In the early sixties, still under the impression of the 1955 treaty restoring Austria's independence, I was taught in elementary school what kind of thing this Austria was. I learned to sing 3 pathetic verses of a hymn, and on a special holyday I was proud of my hand-made flag. Without much effort, we came to a realistic understanding what is meant with "eternal neutrality". So, we were good patriots from the beginning, not in a chauvenistic sense, but in a serene, in a purified sense. |
| Unfortunately, we were not too many of my age. Only one third opposed against the slowly progressing demolition of Austria's sovereignty. Later, many felt sorry, especially when we had to give up in 2002 our beloved currency, the Schilling. |
| I didn't feel sorry for too long. At the beginning of 2000, the "Austrian Freedom Party", after many years of populistic and xenophobic propaganda, had achieved the best election result of their history and prepared to participate in a coalition governement. But now something surprising happened: Our EU partner countries, so much distrusted by myself, raised their voices. For the first time I realized, that this EU could be more than just another step in the direction of a globalised society of stupid indifferent consumers. |
| Here, a mechanism became evident to limit the influence of populistic politicians exploiting the lower instincts of the masses, to their local range. And today, these same populists argue, that we were no patriots, when we have welcome the mitigating influence of the EU in 2000? |
| We are patriots, but not in the sense they would like us to be. |
