A Pleasant Disappointment

Austrians have become so used to the idea of having no opposition party that anything else seems almost abnormal.

The 21 -year postwar coalition of the People's Party and the Socialists brought Austria a stable government -- one that was ultimately able to shoo out the occupying powers, including the Russians, in 1955, pursue a Western-oriented neutralism afterward, and generate impressive economic energy. Even when the People's Party of Chancellor Josef Klaus won a majority in the 165-member Parliament in March, both parties looked toward a continuation of the coalition.

Then, to the astonishment of all Austria, the partnership broke up, and last week the People's Party found itself ruling alone. In the land of Angst and Anschluss, it was a frightening prospect.

It need not have been. Austrians had clung to their "Red-Black" coalition-giving the chancellorship to the People's Party and the presidency to the Social ists -- because the mere idea of two-party competition recalled the civil strife of the 1930s and the subsequent German takeover. But in recent months the two parties had frequently reached deadlock over the People's Party's at tempt to trim funds for state-owned enterprises. Then, after the March election, Socialist Boss Bruno Pittermann presented his party's demands for going along with coalition: continued control of the Interior Ministry and a promise that the coalition arrangement would not be altered for at least one full year.

That was too steep a price for losers to ask, even at the going cost of consensus. Thus ended the 21-year partnership.

As Parliament convened last week, Austrians braced for some political fire works. Instead, both sides proved cautious. Presenting his legislative program, Chancellor Klaus emphasized that his party had "a policy for the whole nation, including the voters of the defeated party." Among the chief goals: associate membership in the Common Market, increased economic growth, and a money-saving reorganization of Austria's nationalized industries. The opposition criticism was mild because, as the Socialists argued, the government's goals would have been much the same even if the coalition had continued. Declared Vienna's independent Kurier last week: "The first great duel was a pleasant disappointment."

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