Victory for Sarrazin: Firebrand Politician Can Remain a Social Democrat
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Thilo Sarrazin, the German Social Democrat who attracted attention last year with his controversial book claiming that immigrants to Germany were dumbing down the country, will not be booted out of the party. He apologized on Thursday and the case against him was quickly abandoned.

After a mere five hours of debate, Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) formally withdrew a petition on Thursday to revoke party membership for firebrand politician Thilo Sarrazin, a former board member of Germany's central bank who drew widespread criticism for his extremely critical descriptions of Muslim immigrants in a bestselling book.

In an announcement that came surprisingly early, an arbitration committee of a local Berlin district chapter of the SPD -- which had been hearing petitions submitted from officials at the local, state and federal chapters of the party -- said all the requests for Sarrazin's exclusion from the Social Democrats had been withdrawn. The decision came after Sarrazin issued a statement in which he said it had not been his intention with his book to "discriminate against groups, particularly migrants." This was the second failed attempt in two years to ban Sarrazin from the center-left party.

The head of the arbitration committee, Sybille Uken, said a "constructive, respectful, serious and intense discussion" had been carried about by those involved in the case. "We have agreed not to allow the SPD to be divided," she said. Andrea Nahles, the national party's secretary general who led the proceedings against Sarrazin, refused to comment on the decision to drop the case, as did Sarrazin. » | dsl -- with wires | Friday, April 22, 2011

Austrian Social Democrats Asked to Form a Government
ASSOCIATED PRESS: VIENNA, Austria — The biggest winner in Austria's elections got the president's approval Wednesday to begin forming a coalition government that they have promised will exclude the country's powerful far-right parties.

But it remains to be seen if the center-left Social Democrats' resistance to the right will work in the winning party's favor.

The Social Democrats won the most votes in parliamentary elections Sept. 28, with 29.3 percent. Wednesday, President Heinz Fischer asked the party's leader, Werner Faymann, to try to form what Fischer called the "decisive" government the country needs.

Complicating Faymann's task is the resounding success of the two far-right parties — the Freedom Party and the Alliance for the Future of Austria, which took third and fourth place in the election. Their combined total of 28.2 percent puts them nearly on an equal footing with the Social Democrats — and has made them difficult to ignore.

Faymann has rejected forming a coalition with either far-right party. He stuck by that stance Wednesday but acknowledged it could hamper his efforts to forge a government.

"It's a tactical drawback but I believe it's an advantage for the country," he said.

Animosity between the rightist leaders made it appear unlikely at first that they would consider collaborating with each other. But the two men met Wednesday in an apparently successful attempt to warm relations.

"It was a get-together of winners," Joerg Haider, leader of the Alliance for the Future of Austria, said in a statement afterward.

The atmosphere in the meeting was positive and constructive, the statement said. It also said the parties do not "reject taking responsibility for creating a new government." Austrian Social Democrats Asked to Form a Government >>> By Veronika Oleksyn | October 8, 2008

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Austria on Path to Broad Coalition
WIENER ZEITUNG (ENGLISH): Austria's Social Democrats are looking forward to working with the newly appointed conservative leader, Josef Pröll, making a reprise of the country's broad left-right coalition more likely.

The People's Party named 40-year-old Josef Pröll as leader late on Monday after the far-right made big gains in Sunday's parliamentary election at the expense of the centrists.

Unlike outgoing chief Wilhelm Molterer, Proell has a good rapport with Social Democrat head Werner Faymann, who is expected to be asked to form a government.

"I've always said that I can work well with him and now we can try and prove that," Faymann, whose party won the most votes on Sunday, told Austrian radio on Tuesday.

The Social Democrats and conservatives had ruled in a quarrelsome coalition that lasted less than two years before collapsing in July, triggering the election.

Both parties plunged to their worst results since World War Two, while the far-right Freedom Party and splinter Alliance for Austria's Future, led by former Freedom leader Jörg Haider, garnered nearly a third of votes between them.

A grand coalition has only recently become such an unpopular governing style. The vast majority of Austria's previous governments were broad-based, favoured by voters because they were seen bringing consensus and stability.

The outgoing government was particularly damaged by personality clashes rather than fundamental policy disputes. Austria on Path to Broad Coalition >>> By Sylvia Westall and Boris Groendahl / WZ Online / Reuters | September 30, 2008

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