Minister of slurs gets off the hook

What do these all have in common? Try asking the man in charge of Austria's diplomacy

The Austrian Foreign Minister, who insulted a handful of world leaders before breakfast, escaped censure yesterday when the Parliament in Vienna decided that his behaviour had in no way besmirched the country's reputation.

Wolfgang Schussel, the undiplomatic leader of Austrian diplomacy, mustered the government's in-built majority to reject a motion of no confidence tabled by three opposition parties which had questioned the minister's fitness to represent the country abroad.

The more serious question of whether he lied to the public is yet to be resolved, however. Mr Schussel is alleged to have made his careless remarks while attending the European Union summit in Amsterdam last month.

During an early-morning meeting with a select group of journalists, he heaped scorn on foreign dignitaries, trusting that the exchange would remain off the record.

Thus Hans Tietmeyer, the president of the Bundesbank, became a "real pig", a Scandinavian prime minister a "wally", and Edith Cresson, former French prime minister and EU commissioner, an "old bag".

No minutes exist of his outpourings, and accounts of his tour de force vary. The "wally" referred to might have been a Swede or a Dane, and there is also something of a controversy over the "real" epithet preceding Mr Tietmeyer's description.

Everyone present seems to agree, however, that Mr Schussel reserved the worst of his bile for the Bundesbank president. Mr Tietmeyer had just emerged victorious from his battle with the German Finance Minister, Theo Waigel, over the German central bank's gold reserves. The Austrian government, or at least its conservative wing, headed by Mr Schussel, had evidently backed the loser.

That was the first mistake, but a minor one in comparison to what was to follow. A wiser politician than Mr Schussel might have kept quiet about that, instead of trumpeting his antagonism to one of the most powerful men in Europe. And to compound the offence by calling him unflattering names was not entirely statesmanlike.

And so Mr Schussel was forced to trot to Frankfurt in a hurry, for a "man-to-man" talk with a pig - real or otherwise. Sadly, no account exists of this meeting either, only vivid descriptions of imaginary scenes, with the Foreign Minister in the foreground lying prostrate on the Bundesbank's floor.

Whatever happened, it is safe to assume that a fair amount of grovelling was involved. Suffice to recall that Austria's currency is pegged so close to the Deutschmark that its value and rates of interest are in effect steered from Frankfurt. Whether Mr Tietmeyer was placated only time and the future movements of the Schilling will tell. It is a pity though that Mr Schussel did not follow up the gesture with similar pilgrimages to Paris, Washington and the relevant Scandinavian capital. Sadder still, it is a shame that instead of an apology, he spun a flimsy web of falsehoods to cover up his offence.

For it is not so much what Mr Schussel had said, but his elaborate denials afterwards, that led to yesterday's vote. He had never had that meeting with journalists, he claimed, and went on to accuse the German magazine Focus, which broke the story, of malicious slander.

The other journalists present at the same briefing confirmed the Focus story however, and proceeded to dredge up Schusselisms of old from previous encounters.

The Foreign Minister is thus credited with the description "an ageing Bette Davis" for Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State.

And President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus is reported to rejoice under the nickname "that smelly Turk".

As to the official account of the Amsterdam non-meeting, the editor of the respected Salzburger Nachrichten, whose reporter claims to have been present, had the following to say: "Wolfgang Schussel is lying."

It can be argued, as it was, forcefully, in yesterday's debate, that Mr Schussel is a PR disaster on the scale of the Waldheim controversy.

But Austria will not be rid of him, because the People's Party he leads keeps the Socialist-conservative coalition in power. Should Mr Schussel be kicked out, the government would collapse, and the extremist Jorg Haider could no longer be kept away from the trough.

Mr Haider, heading the country's second-biggest party, might not enhance Austria's international standing either, though at least he could be trusted not say unpleasant things about German leaders.

He is on record expressing admiration for the economic policies of Hitler.