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OTTO VON HABSBURG
EUROPE'S
~4!MAN
OF THE HOlR'
The son of the last Austro-Hungarian Ernperor has been elected to the European Parliarnent. His
voice rnay we/1 prove to be one of the rnost influential in the building of a "Greater Europe."
O
tto von Habsburg, 66, the
eldest son of the last Aus–
tro- Hungarian emperor,
was elected June 1O as one of West
Germany's 81 representatives lo the
en1arged and strengthened European
Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
His victory at the polls could have a
wide-ranging effect on the future of
the entire European contincnt.
Von Habsburg's candidacy was
one of the main issues in thc election
campaign leading to the June ballot–
ing, in which voters in the nine na–
tions of the European Community
went to the polls to choose, for the
first time, directly elected candidates
to the Europcan Parliament. He is
possibly the most controversia! of aU
The
PLAIN TRUTH September 1979
by
Keith W. Stump
the 41 O members who will enter the
ncw assembly.
The election of the one-time arch–
duke resulted from a 60 percent victory
by the Christian Social Union (CSU)
slate in Bavaria. The CSU, led by
controversia! politician Franz-Josef
Strauss, is the Bavarian branch of the
Christian Democratic Union (CDU),
the conservative opposition party in
West Germany. Strauss, a long-time
good friend of von Habsburg, stcongly
endorsed his candidacy.
NEWL Y ELECTEO
representative Otto
von Habsburg (center) is pictured with
his father-Emperor Karl of Austria·
Hungary-and with the 1000-year·old
crown of the Ho/y Roman Empire.
Von Habsburg's candidacy, how–
ever, did not go uncontested. The So–
cial Democratic Party (SPD) , in
power in Bonn under tbe leadcrship
of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, vig–
orously attacked von Habsburg,
charging that he was unfit to be a
rcpresentative of West German de–
mocracy and labeling him a "racist,"
a "reactionary," and a "monster."
Schmidt termed him "a bad visiting
card for Germany.' '
Who is this man who has drawn
such heated accusations and gener–
ated such widespread controversy?
Though fairly well known on the
Continen t, von Habsburg is 1ittle
known in the United States and else–
where. In months to come, however,
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