Austria lurches towards early poll

Riess-Passer has lost power struggle to Joerg Haider

Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel appeared on Monday to be heading for early elections, after an internal row in the far-right Freedom Party sent shock waves through his coalition government.

Following the resignation at the weekend of two senior cabinet ministers - including Vice-President Susanne Riess-Passer - Transport Minister Mathias Reichhold announced on Monday that he too was leaving the government coalition, in a bitter feud over tax cuts.

I won't put up with this. It's over

Wolfgang Schuessel, as quoted by press

The row has split the Freedom Party between charismatic ex-leader Joerg Haider - who wants the tax cuts as originally planned - and the party's senior government ministers, who have accepted that the cuts need to be delayed after August's devastating floods.

Mr Schuessel could, in theory, replace the ministers with other Freedom Party members, but most Austrian media reports on Monday predicted that he would go to the polls, possibly as early as November.

"I won't put up with this. It's over," the tabloid Kronen Zeitung quoted him as saying.

The row was being seen as a defining moment in the struggle for power within the party.

Chancellor Schuessel is thought to favour November poll

The populist but highly controversial Mr Haider officially stepped down as leader in March 2000, but continues to wield huge influence.

Ms Riess-Passer, who took over as party leader, had been seen as a more acceptable public face for the party. She has now resigned the leadership as well as her cabinet post.

Mr Schuessel's Conservative Party formed an alliance with the Freedom Party after elections in 2000.

The deal sparked a storm of international protests and boycotts, and Mr Haider resigned as leader partly to calm the storm.

But Mr Haider, who has remained in office as governor of the Austrian province of Carinthia, remains hugely popular with rank-and-file members.

He gained support for his current battle from 400 members at a party rally on Saturday, before confronting Ms Riess-Passer on Sunday.

Haider has a huge rank-and-file following

Elections are not scheduled until October next year, but November 2002 was being touted as the earliest possibility likely to be entertained by Mr Schuessel.

The Austria Press Agency quoted unnamed Freedom Party sources on Sunday as saying the current government would cease work on 19 September and a new election would be held either on 17 or 24 November.

The Freedom Party has not immediately named a replacement for Ms Riess-Passer, or Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser, who also resigned.

A Freedom Party convention called for 20 October is expected to elect new leaders.

Ms Riess-Passer said on Sunday that she had been left with no choice but to resign.

These internal party disagreements have crippled the party and have seriously hurt the trust of the voters

Susanne Riess-Passer

"These internal party disagreements have crippled the party and have seriously hurt the trust of the voters," she said.

"It's my view that this is the only honest way to go."

The rift between Mr Haider and Ms Riess-Passer would have seemed unthinkable in the wake of the party's election success.

Ms Riess-Passer was seen as such a Haider loyalist that she earned the nickname "king's cobra".

She was his chosen successor when he pulled out of the leadership.

But, as earlier demonstrated by Lady Thatcher and John Major in the UK, chosen successors can fail to live up to their benefactors' hopes.

The first outwards signs of a Riess-Passer/Haider divergence came in Feburary, when she appeared to criticise him for visiting Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.