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TAGS: OPRC KPAO AU
 
SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: April 11, 2008 
 
 
Fewer Asylum Applications since Schengen 
 
¶1. Fears that Austria would receive a flood of asylum seekers after 
the enlargement of Europe's Schengen Zone appear to have been 
unfounded. The Interior Ministry in Vienna says there have been 
fewer applications for asylum in the three months since the borders 
opened in January 2008 than in the same period last year. Announcing 
the figures on Thursday, Interior Minister Guenther Platter (OeVP) 
said the scaremongers in association with Schengen had thus been 
discredited. Platter also said the number of asylum seekers sent 
back to the EU country in which they had first applied had increased 
significantly. At the same time that Austria's Interior Minister 
emphasized the fact that the number of applications for asylum has 
gone down since the enlargement of the Schengen Zone, Austrian 
industry leaders are backing immigration, saying the country can no 
longer sit back and watch qualified immigrants go elsewhere for 
work. Federation of Austrian Industry President Veit Sorger said: 
"Austria needs qualified immigrants for economic and business 
reasons. We cannot look on much longer as qualified specialists pass 
our country by and as less qualified persons enter many fields," 
semi-official daily Wiener Zeitung quotes. Commenting on an existing 
deficiency of specialists in Austria he added that more than 60 
percent of enterprises struggle to find suitable personnel. The 
Federation is also set to push for a "set of provisions" to improve 
the Austrian economy, such as school and education reform, 
advancement of women and provisions to make jobs and family more 
compatible. Sorger said the Federation welcomed Interior Minister 
Guenther Platter's "Platform for integration and security" and the 
Integration Report, "because it addresses the fundamental parameters 
of successful integration." According to Sorger, the Federation was 
also pleased with the promotion of language programs and the 
possibility of quick entry into the education system for migrants. 
However, he criticized the existing quota system for immigrants and 
called for a "transparent, criteria based immigration system." 
 
 
 
How the "Likeable Factor" Drives the US Election Campaign 
 
¶2. In a PAS-facilitated interview with an Austrian English language 
radio station, US political analyst Amy Walter assessed trends and 
developments of this year's US presidential election campaign. She 
discussed the "likeable factor" of the three contestants, Hillary 
Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain, and how that might affect 
their chances of winning. Walter also pointed out that as a result 
of the extremely long campaign; the "exhaustion factor" among the 
Democratic presidential hopefuls was already particularly high. The 
US media, meanwhile, are "more interested in the competition between 
Clinton and Obama" than in the Republican candidate McCain, the 
expert said on ORF radio FM4 on March 31. 
In a PAS-facilitated interview aired on March 31 on Austrian English 
language radio station FM4, US political analyst Amy Walter 
discussed the three presidential hopeful's "likeable factor'" 
influence on the election campaign: "Hillary Clinton is the most 
defined of the candidates. She is probably the least likeable. [When 
it comes to] the likeable factor, she has the highest negatives of 
the three candidates. She has this low ceiling, where a certain 
number of people like her, but also a certain number of people who 
will never like her. They've already made up their minds. There is 
very little in this election that will change anybody's mind about 
Hillary Clinton - like or dislike." Regarding Barack Obama, "he's 
much better liked, but the people have also said that they don't 
know much about him. So, he has what seems like an almost limitless 
ceiling. At the same time, we don't know where his floor goes, 
either. So it's a much more dramatic range than Hillary Clinton's. 
Low ceiling, but high floor: That is also John McCain. He is liked 
right now, people feel they do know him, he has high approval 
ratings, but he has not been defined, either." 
Meanwhile, with Clinton and Obama the "exhaustion factor is already 
quite "serious. Particularly in early morning interviews, they look 
worn out. I can't emphasize enough how atypical this election is." 
McCain "looks like he can rise above all this." His message seems to 
be: "While the 'Democrats are talking about petty little things and 
silly little debates, I can talk to world leaders, and I am putting 
forward my plan for foreign policy.' The problem, of course, is that 
the media is much more interested in the back and forth between 
Obama and Clinton. It's a story, it's still a race; McCain has a 
harder time getting coverage in the media. And when he does, the 
coverage he gets is often about his age. When he does get attention, 
it is not always positive. But he is doing two things: One, he is 
trying to look presidential, and he is using it to raise money. 
Remember, he is woefully behind the Democrats in terms of 
fundraising." 
 
 
Darabos Wants To Extend Chad Deployment 
 
¶3. Austria's Defense Minister Norbert Darabos (SPOe), who just 
returned from a visit to Chad, has called for an extension of the 
Austrian contingent's deployment to the EUFOR humanitarian 
assistance mission in the African country. The soldiers are 
scheduled to return home by summer this year, but Darabos says he 
wants them to remain until March 2009. Speaking to Austrian radio, 
Darabos explained he needs to "discuss and coordinate" his plan with 
the Foreign Minister and then with the other cabinet members. He 
believes the EUFOR troops "can effectively protect the refuges. 
Security in the region has already been established to a certain 
extent, simply because of the troops' presence there," the Minister 
said.  EUFOR's main task - to protect the refugees in Chad's border 
region with Sudan - could take years to accomplish, according to ORF 
radio early morning news Morgenjournal. 
 
 
Democrats Blast Bush over Iraq 
 
In the United States, the Democrats have harshly criticized a 
decision by President George Bush to suspend a planned withdrawal of 
troops from Iraq, which was due to begin after July. According to 
the President, the suspension will allow General David Petraeus to 
assess the next step in Iraq. Nanci Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker 
of the House, however, accused George Bush of putting off major 
decisions for the next US President and of failing to answer key 
questions, including "when are we going to bring the troops home? 
This is a question we have been asking the President over and over 
again. He is just dragging this out so we can put it at the doorstep 
of the new President of the United States," Austrian radio quotes 
her on ORF radio early morning news Morgenjournal. 
 
 
UNSG Won't Attend Olympics Opening 
 
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will not attend the 
opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. A UN spokesperson said the 
decision had been taken some time ago, and was due to previous 
commitments. The Olympic torch relay has arrived in Argentina today, 
and the capital Buenos Aires is preparing for protests over China's 
crackdown in Tibet. Meanwhile, UN special rapporteur on torture 
Manfred Nowak has harshly criticized Beijing for not allowing the UN 
High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Tibet to assess the 
situation there, liberal daily Der Standard writes. 
Kilner