Die EU-Sanktionen haben Europa verändert
Th. Klau, Die Presse
January 30 2010

Ten years on, one thing is certain: so-called “sanctions” against Vienna missed their main target which was to persuade mainstream Austrian politics to isolate Jörg Haider and his party. The “quasi State” funeral accorded to the governor of Carinthia bears witness to that failure. And it doesn’t only regard Austria. Italy is governed by Silvio Berlusconi, a man who has not only broken with the conventional norms of behaviour in post-war democracy but governs in an alliance with a party, the Lega Nord, which doesn’t scruple to stir up the people on the classic mould of right-wing populism. Yet sanctions against Austria did have one saving grace. Without the Austrian precedent, the Treaty of Lisbon today would have no legal recourse against a grave threat to democracy arising in a member state. That possibility is subject to many conditions, certainly: it calls for unanimity of members – a clause which ipso facto rules out applicability – not to mention a majority in parliament, but the mere fact of it existing is a useful deterrent.