The fight about Eurofighters in Austria

For months now Austria's ruling parties, the Austrian Socialist Party (SPÖ) and the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), have been squabbling about the purchase of 18 Eurofighters for the Austrian armed forces. Now the Austrian Defence Minister, Norbert Darabos, has announced that, despite a campaign pledge made to the contrary by the SPÖ, the government will not be able to withdraw from the contract completely. "The Eurofighter impasse has cost the government a great deal in terms of credibility," writes Michael Fleischhacker. "It has totally abandoned the system of a half-way sensible defence policy and lost a maximum of credibility. All those ÖVP politicians who over the past months and even now claim the haggling about the number of aircraft was unnecessary should look back to the summer of 2004: back then the ÖVP-led government reduced that number from 24 to 18 because of the floods. This was the beginning of the end of a sensible approach."

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