The World - News from Dec. 25, 1987

Karl Blecha, Austria’s interior minister, called for the resignation of President Kurt Waldheim in the coalition government’s first major break of high-level support for the president. In an interview with a Vienna newspaper, Die Presse, Blecha said Austria has become increasingly isolated because of international criticism of Waldheim’s Nazi ties. He said Waldheim should await a final report from an international commission investigating his World War II role, then step down and “in this way serve his country.” A spokesman for Waldheim’s People’s Party said the one who should resign is Blecha, a leader of the Socialist Party.