16 : Austria asserts its national sovereignty and annoys the EU.
From the pages of History comes a warning. Europe issues Haider ultimatum to Austria First published on Tuesday 1 February 2000 European Union members entered uncharted political waters last night by threatening to boycott Austria if Jörg Haider's far-right Freedom party joins a new government.Portugal, the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, issued an unprecedented statement saying that all member states, with the obvious exception of Austria, would refuse all bilateral contacts with Vienna if that happened. R The members also served notice they they would not back any Austrian candidate seeking a position with an international body. 17 years on and the tyrannical authoritarian Superstate continues its swaggering,hubristic,venal practices as if nothing has changed or is ever likely to change in the world at large. It has bullied and coerced member states, Denmark and Ireland, to re-run democratic national plebiscites that delivered democr...