The year 2006 will bring two big challenges for the centre-right government of Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel of Austria. In the first six months, the country will hold the rotating European Union presidency and be expected to lead the troubled group of states through internal and external crises. And in the autumn, the six-year-old Austrian coalition will face an uphill battle for re-election.
Austria has held the EU presidency only once, in 1998, just three years after joining the union, a particularly uneventful period. This time, the agenda is heavy.
