Austrian Right-Wing Populists in Libya for Mediation Effort

[pampango]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,774779,00.html

But perhaps the most bizarre feeler sent out by the Gadhafi regime extends to Vienna -- and the right-wing populist Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ). In June, a senior official in Tripoli sent an invitation, which SPIEGEL ONLINE has seen, to FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache, inviting him to the Libyan capital "to follow up closely the reality of what has been happening in my country Libya and the NATO's aggression."

Weeks of e-mail traffic followed. And on Thursday, David Lasar, an FPÖ member of the Vienna city-state government, travelled to Tripoli at Strache's behest in an effort to prepare the way for an eventual mediation effort between Gadhafi and the rebels by the FPÖ leader himself.

The FPÖ, one of several right-wing populist parties gaining in popularity across Europe, is viewed with distaste by many for its strident opposition to Austria's Muslim immigrant population. The party is also deeply skeptical of the European Union and efforts to prop up the common currency. Many see the FPÖ and its right-wing allies across the Continent as being too close to the extreme right wing for comfort.

But it is also no secret that Strache's party has long had close ties to the Gadhafi clan. Former FPÖ leader Jörg Haider became friendly with Gadhafi's second-oldest son, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, when the Libyan was studying in Vienna in the 1990s. Haider visited Tripoli for the first time in 1999 and returned several times thereafter, getting to know Moammar Gadhafi in the process.