Austrian history lessons

Date: 23/07/1998

Friends and enemies should be warned that Austria's Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schüssel has the memory of an elephant when it comes to other countries' past relations with Vienna.

Supporting the current bid for Mexico to be offered a new trade deal with the EU, Schüssel argued that the Latin American state deserved a good turn because it was one of the few countries which stood up and objected, albeit from a distance, to the Nazi occupation of Austria in 1938.

Perhaps all those with something to win or lose over the next six months should start consulting their history books now.