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SIPDIS 
 
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO AU OPRC
 
SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: November 03, 2006 
 
 
Meeting of the Party Leaders 
 
¶1. The "secret" meeting between the leaders of the OeVP and the 
SPOe, which occasioned much speculation in Austria's media 
yesterday, in fact took place with President Heinz Fischer on 
Wednesday. The talks were aimed at ending the stalemate in the two 
parties' negotiations to form a new coalition government. Despite 
the meeting, Austria media agree that the coalition talks remain in 
limbo. 
It was the first meeting between SPOe chairperson Alfred Gusenbauer 
and OeVP leader Wolfgang Schuessel since the OeVP suspended 
negotiations in anger over SPOe support for parliamentary 
investigations into the deal for Austria to purchase 18 Eurofighter 
jets and recent scandals involving Austrian banks, most notably 
Bawag, semi-official daily Wiener Zeitung says. All Austrian media 
welcome the fact that the two parties seem to be "talking to each 
other again," but they remain pessimistic about a quick resumption 
of coalition talks. The atmosphere remains "chilly," and it is 
unclear if and when negotiations could continue, the 
mass-circulation daily Kurier states. The OeVP has also accused the 
SPOe of not negotiating in good faith. Some in the OeVP believe the 
SPOe wants to form a minority coalition government with the Greens, 
with the tacit support of the FPOe, instead of a SPOe-OeVP grand 
coalition. OeVP floor leader Wilhelm Molterer said yesterday his 
party will not allow itself to be "boxed and badgered" into a 
coalition with the SPOe, and demanded the Social Democrats issue a 
public statement that it has no interest in forming a coalition with 
the Greens and the FPOe. Meanwhile, SPOe floor leader Josef Cap has 
denied that his party is aiming for a coalition with the Greens and 
FPOe. Cap also speculated the Conservatives are planning to cite a 
lack of cooperation with the SPOe as a reason to seek new elections, 
the Wiener Zeitung writes. 
 
 
EU & Russia Preparing Summit 
 
¶2. In Brussels, the European Union and Russia are looking to settle 
differences over future cooperation. The current partnership and 
cooperation agreement between the EU and Russia expires at the end 
of next year. 
ORF online news reports that Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja 
as the current EU Council President, EU foreign policy chief Javier 
Solana and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov intend to prepare 
a summit meeting to be held in Helsinki November 24. This is 
necessary because several issues for a potential new cooperation 
agreement remain unresolved. There has been no agreement yet between 
the EU and Russia on topics including human rights or the EU's push 
for Russia to sign an energy charter, which would not only guarantee 
the EU's long-term energy supplies from Russia, but also facilitate 
EU investment in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin refused 
concessions on energy at the Lahti summit last month. Thus the issue 
of energy supplies is likely to be a hot topic also during the 
German EU Presidency in 2007, ORF online news believes. 
 
 
Despite Kerry: Iraq Remains Top Issue 
 
¶3. While the row over remarks about US troops made by former 
presidential candidate John Kerry is dying down after Kerry 
apologized for his statements, the situation in Iraq remains on top 
of the agenda in the US mid-term campaign, surveys reveal. A 
scathing assessment of the situation in the Gulf state by the US 
military has been circulated in the US media recently. 
In its series of reports on the upcoming Congressional elections, 
liberal daily Der Standard argues that despite former presidential 
candidate John Kerry's "poorly started joke" on US troops, Iraq 
remains a top issue on the campaign agenda. Still, the daily says, 
Kerry has done the Republicans "a huge favor with his glitch," and 
has relegated a lot of negative new reports, particularly on Iraq, 
to the backburner -- at least for the moment. However, according to 
a recent Times/CBS poll, Iraq remains the key issue for Americans: 
Almost 70 percent believe their president does not have a plan for 
how to end the war there, and 80 percent say that President Bush - 
with his new, candid approach, has merely changed his rhetoric, but 
not his strategy, the Standard writes. 
 
 
The Fear of Mexifornia 
 
¶4. Foreign affairs writer Christoph Winder is publishing a series of 
analyses of the US Congressional election campaign and key issues on 
the agenda. Among the hot topics is immigration, which some election 
campaigners appear to be using to further their own political agenda 
-- Republican Pat Buchanan, for example, who recently published a 
book warning about the "third world invasion and conquest of 
America." 
Foreign affairs writer for liberal daily Der Standard Christoph 
Winder argues that Republican Patrick Buchanan, who published a book 
entitled "State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest 
of Ameica" recently, is pushing an anti-immigration agena, and 
predicts -- as Winder puts it -- the "immnent demise of the US 
empire." Buchanan is warnig that "hordes of immigrants pouring into 
the USare not only spreading disease and crime, but are also 
destroying the American way of life on a grand scale," Winder says. 
By 2050, Buchanan suggests, "California will have gone back to 
Mexico." Even now, California had reverted to a "third-world state," 
and had become "Mexifornia," says Buchanan. This, the Republican 
believes, is "no coincidence, it is the result of a political master 
plan on the part of Mexico, which had never forgiven the Americans 
for having lost Texas to them in the 19th century." Out of 
"resentment, they are now pushing a clandestine re-conquest of North 
America," Winder quotes Buchanan. 
While the Republican's views can still be seen as extravagant, even 
in an election year as 2006, they show that "apparently the classic 
immigration country USA is facing yet another one of its 
periodically emerging immigration crises," writes Winder. 
For full text in German go to: 
http://derstandard.at/ --> Politik --> International --> USA --> 
"Die grosse Angst vor Mexifornia" 
 
 
Interview on Afghanistan 
 
¶5. In an interview with an Austrian daily, UN coordinator for 
Afghanistan Tom Koenigs discussed the Taliban's "renaissance" in 
Afghanistan, and the question of whether Pakistan is supporting 
Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. 
In an interview, Tom Koenigs, special envoy for the United Nations 
Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, told centrist daily Die Presse 
developments in Afghanistan may be a result of the fact that the 
"regeneration of the Taliban has been neglected, on the one hand. On 
the other hand, we have failed to sufficiently recognize the basis 
of the Taliban's success. Essentially, we've left the country to its 
own devices." Nonetheless, he sees some success in Afghanistan: "The 
country used to be an area where terrorists could move and regroup 
freely. That is no longer the case. Furthermore, the country now has 
a constitution, a democratically-elected parliament, and a 
democratically-elected president. There are many development 
projects. Per-capita income in Afghanistan has doubled since 2001." 
Asked whether Pakistan was supporting Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, 
Koenigs said: "That is the million-Euro question. I don't know. You 
can hide in the border region, (...) but to assume the Pakistani 
state is protecting bin Laden would be taking things too far. After 
all, Pakistan has captured a number of al-Qaeda leaders." The 
problem, he suspects, is that Pakistan is "not making a clear 
distinction between al Qaeda and the Taliban, who many believe to be 
the lesser evil, or even politically acceptable." 
Kilner