As a demographic, FPO supporters tend to be young, middle-class, well-educated folks, people who have known nothing of World War nor of Austria's painful efforts to reestablish itself within the mainstream political world. They are the children of the prosperity nurtured by 30 years of socialist rule, and ironically it is their fear of losing this prosperity that has turned them to the right.

They fear that the SPO's support for Austria's enormous pension system would eventually have bankrupted the country. At the same time, many are afraid that European Union expansion will benefit big western European countries like Great Britain and France, but will make Austria, which is relatively small and shares borders with four former Eastern-bloc nations, vulnerable to Eastern European financial instability.

In many ways, Austrian politics of today parallel US politics of the mid-1990s — in both cases people were obsessed with the idea that big government, blind internationalism and an open-door immigration policy would ruin what should be a proud and prosperous nation (to wit, FPO parliamentary representatives often speak of the party's "contract" with the Austrian public). And just as many supporters of the "Republican Revolution" were young urban professionals, most of the pro-FPO sentiment comes from people who have very little appreciation for history, who are therefore vulnerable to Haider's demagogic claims that their cozy lifestyle is about to go down the toilet.

What it all comes down to is this: the main reason for the surge of younger voters into the FPO folds is cultural. The SPO and the Greens are associated not only with Big Government, but also with the spirit of protest and self-criticism left over from the '60s New Left movements.

But while the New Left's message used to appeal to young people as cool and rebellious, today it seems old and tired. It is the strident voice of the old generation, and today's young people want no part of it. Just look at last week's anti-FPO protests in Vienna — while 73 percent of Austrians may oppose the party, only about 5,000 bothered to take to the streets.

At the same time, the FPO's success has less to do with Haider's vaguely pro-Nazi, definitely xenophobic rhetoric. Nor is it true, as some claim, that Austria is rife with undercurrents of racist sentiment — it has absorbed more refugees than many of its larger EU partners, and with less social tension.

Likewise, most people who support the FPO have little fear of immigrants; nor do most believe Haider's line that immigrants hurt the Austrian economy. But what they do find appealing is Haider's willingness to cut to the chase, right or wrong to say what he believes. Call it demagoguery, but in contrast to the bloated political vapidity of the past 30 years, most people choose the former.

And so the world is faced with an uncomfortable but true fact — strong capitalist economies do not necessarily produce liberal, centrist governments. In Austria's case, the opposite has turned out to be true. The rest of Europe has wasted the last few weeks spouting empty speeches about the apparent lack of acceptable political values and respect for human rights in the Austrian government, claims that have only strengthened the FPO's position at home.

It is exactly this sort of strident-yet-impotent posturing from Europe's mostly left-leaning governments that brought the SPO its defeat. If they don't stop chastising Austria and start learning from it, the next generation of leaders will put their hands on the wheels of more and more ships of state — and steer Right.

E-mail Clay Risen at risenc@yahoo.com.