Nationalist esprit de corps hampers investigation

Reports of hidden accounts kept by the late right-wing populist Jörg Haider in Liechtenstein prompt the left-liberal Frankfurter Rundschau to accuse Austria of having a dangerously anti-European attitude: "We are not dealing with a myth here but with a system, and it has no intention of crumbling. A sly disregard for written rules is still seen as a virtue in Austria. ... Anyone who conducts serious investigations is endangering 'Austria as a financial hub' and only helping the competition. ... It wasn't the Klagenfurt public prosecutor who uncovered Haider's dealings. The state didn't even manage to open up the accounts of the main suspects in the Hypo [Alpe Adria Bank] affair. There may well be good possibilities for cross-border investigation nowadays, but the new nationalist esprit de corps is keeping pace with the threats. ... Until there is a European 'we,' those whom we see as 'our own' will remain the moral victors. Haider capitalised on this situation."

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