after the 1999 legislative election, several months of negotiations ended in early 2000 when the övp formed a coalition government with the right-wing populist freedom party of austria (fpö) led by jörg haider. the fpö had won just a few hundred more votes than the övp, but was considered far too controversial to lead a government. the övp's wolfgang schüssel became chancellor—the first övp chancellor of austria since 1970. this caused widespread outrage in europe and the european union imposed informal diplomatic sanctions on austria, the first time that it imposed sanctions on a member state. bilateral relations were frozen (including contacts and meetings at an inter-governmental level) and austrian candidates would not be supported for posts in european union international offices. austria threatened to veto all applications by countries for european union membership until the sanctions were lifted. a few months later, these sanctions were dropped as a result of a fact-finding mission by three former european prime ministers, the so-called "three wise men". the 2002 legislative election resulted in a landslide victory (42.27% of the vote) for the övp under schüssel. haider's fpö was reduced to 10.16% of the vote.