The well-heeled throng outside Vienna's opera house had lots to chatter about, from the new Malevich exhibition to the latest production at the Burgtheater. The talk was of everything, in fact, except terrorism, anthrax and Osama bin Laden.
Half of Austria's population say they fear a terrorist attack, yet the present crisis has impinged much less on life in Vienna than in other European capitals. The cafΘs are still full, the waiters as elaborately polite and the Sachertorte as cloyingly sweet as ever.
So it came as a shock to be awakened on Sunday morning by a blaring announcement that the hotel was being evacuated while police investigated a bomb warning. "Leave immediately but do not panic," the recorded voice commanded.
We all trooped down the stairs and across the road to a little park. Some wore their white bathrobes, others had packed all their belongings before leaving. One man was carrying a Bible and another clutched his laptop to his breast as if it was his only child.
The kitchen staff enjoyed it enormously, smoking cigarettes and joking together in their pristine, white uniforms. None of the guests expected the scare to be genuine but the evacuation was an unhappy reminder that, even in Vienna, life has changed since September 11th.
As one of the EU's four non-NATO member-states, Austria has taken a back seat during the crisis and, unlike Ireland, has been parsimonious in its contribution to humanitarian aid. At the start of the crisis, the popular, right-wing papers ran a shrill campaign warning that Austria must not compromise its neutrality by helping the US-led military campaign.
These voices have subsequently become quieter and most Austrians seem pleased with the way the chancellor, Dr Wolfgang Schⁿssel, has handled Austria's role in the fight against terrorism. The Foreign Minister, Ms Benita Ferrero-Waldner, visited Syria last month to urge Damascus to back the campaign and Austrian diplomats have exploited their valuable links with the Middle East to shore up support for Austria's role in the international coalition.
As Dr Schⁿssel and his conservative People's Party become more popular, his coalition partners in the far-right Freedom Party are sliding in the opinion polls. The two parties still command a slim majority in opinion polls but the opposition Socialists are gaining ground.
Elections are not due until late in 2003 but most observers expect the coalition to fall apart before then. The experience of government has not been a happy one for the Freedom Party and tension is growing between the moderates who represent the party in government and the hardliners around the former leader, Dr J÷rg Haider.
Dr Haider is officially just an ordinary member of the party but he still enjoys a high media profile and remains the dominant influence in the party. His response to last month's attacks was to visit New York and invite 100 orphans to Carinthia, the Austria mountainous region of which he is governor.
Neither coalition partner will seek an early election until the present crisis passes but by next year, tensions could become unbearable.
When the breach comes, it is likely to happen along the great fault line between the two parties - the issue of Europe.
Dr Haider owes much of his popularity to rabble-rousing campaigns against the EU and his affection for Brussels was not enhanced by the diplomatic freeze that greeted his party's entry into government.
Dr Schⁿssel, on the other hand, is an enthusiastic European who was more hurt than angry when his European partners staged their mini-boycott of Austria last year. The chancellor is not only committed to the EU but supports its enlargement to include the formerly communist states of central and eastern Europe.
The Freedom Party wants to hold a referendum on enlargement, a step that Dr Schⁿssel says he will not countenance. If the EU closes negotiations with the Czech Republic on the issue of the environment within the next few months, the coalition could fall apart by next summer.
The reason the environment issue is so crucial is because Austria is concerned about the safety of a nuclear power plant at Temelin, in the Czech Republic. Even if the EU says that Prague has fulfilled all the necessary conditions and made the plant safe, many Austrians will be worried and Dr Haider could spot his chance to do what he does best - turning popular anxiety into right-wing votes.
AFP reports from Vienna:
Three Austrian police officers have been charged with "torture leading to death" after a Nigerian refugee they had gagged during his deportation suffocated, court officials said yesterday.
The officers' trial is to begin on March 4th, 2002, a court in Korneuburg, north of Vienna said.
Marcus Omofuma, a Nigerian refugee denied asylum and deported to Bulgaria by the Austrian authorities, died of suffocation on May 1st, 1999, after Austrian police officers had gagged him during his flight out of the country. When his body arrived in Sofia, Bulgarian doctors concluded that he had died of asphyxiation. Omofuma's death provoked a general outcry from Austrian human rights organisations.
