Austria’s main parties are preparing to begin tense wrangling to form a government amid warnings about the country’s democracy after the far right’s watershed victory in a general election in which angry voters punished centrist incumbents over migration and inflation.
On Sunday, the anti-Islam, Kremlin-friendly Freedom party (FPÖ) scored its strongest result since its founding after the second world war by former Nazi functionaries and SS officers with just over 29% of the vote. The outcome surpassed expectations and beat the ruling centre-right People’s party (ÖVP) by nearly three percentage points. The centre-left opposition Social Democratic party (SPÖ) turned in its worst-ever performance with 21% while the Greens, junior partners in government, sank to 8%.
A short list of things the FPÖ is famous for:
The party fund scandal when then head of party H.C. Strache used 10 000€ party funds to purchase emeralds in “Clash of Clans” (I wish I made that up but I didn’t).
Trying to strike a deal with a “Russian Oligarch” to purchase Austrias biggest news outlet “Krone” and turn it into a FPÖ propaganda machine. The “Russian Oligarch” was a bait and high ranking FPÖ politicians (like the mentioned H.C. Strache) had to explain themselves and said they were “having drunk fantasies”. It caused the then ÖVP-FPÖ government to collapse.
A song containing the lyrics “Let’s go! (which can also mean Release gas! - I wanted to mention that since it gets lost in translation) We’ll make it 7 million!”. Then minister of inner affairs Herbert Kickl (who
is now likely tocould become chancellor) reacted not by criticism towards his party, but by criticism towards the “Verfassungsschutz” (Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution) who, according to him, leaked the song. He then ordered a normal police unit, that was meant to arrest drug dealers and gang members, to raid the Verfassungsschutz and they took any evidence for far right extremism linked to the FPÖ.Now head of party Herbert Kickl is also known for:
Calling the neo nazi group “Identitäre Bewegung” a “project worth supporting”.
Claiming that horse deworming medication could treat covid.
Refering to himself as “Volkskanzler” a title also used by Adolf Hitler.
Saying that “politics should be above the law and that the law should not be above politics”
Having friends that donated money to the Christchurch mass killer and that really wanted to “meet him and drink a coffee if he visits Vienna one day”.
I bet I have forgotten a lot of shit that has been going on. Let’s just say the last few years have been a wild ride in Austrian politics.
Edit: as has been pointed out, Herbert Kickl is not a likely but possible option for chancellor since the ÖVP could form a coalition with the SPÖ and keep Nehammer as chancellor. It was bad wording from my side, I apologize >~<
Having friends that donated money to the Christchurch mass killer and that really wanted to “meet him and drink a coffee if he visits Vienna one day”.
Can you link me to an article about tbis? My contention is that Anders Breivik was just ahead of his time. Europe’s turning ugly.
Saw “Nazi” graffitied on this guy’s face in Vienna last week and was wondering whether that was an exaggeration. Seems not, unfortunately.
Yeah. Too bad the other parties weren’t doing better but there are various reasons:
The people’s party ÖVP is still suffering from their former-former head of party Sebastian Kurz who was extremely popular and the Austrian chancellor for quite a while but who had to resign after a series of corruption charges. The ÖVP then quickly appointed Alexander Schallenberg as their new head and as chancellor but it was clear from the beginning, that he was a puppet. He then had to resign after a meeting in Brussels where “Schallenberg” wanted to tweet something like “So happy to be meeting with (Von der Leyen I think) in Brussels…” but they posted it not on Schallenberg’s twitter account but accidentally on Kurz’ twitter which made it even more clear that Schallenberg was nothing but a puppet. Austria then had a new chancellor AGAIN roughly two weeks after Kurz resigned and is officially led by Kurt Nehammer since then. But let’s just say the ÖVP’s reputation has been pretty miserable ever since Kurz left. Even worse they tried to steal voters from the FPÖ by radicalising to the right, legitimising a lot of FPÖ positions.
As for the social democratic SPÖ, it is divided between progressive democratic socialist and current head of party Andreas Babler and conservative social democrat Hans Peter Doskozil. They had been holding a vote for their head of party and it looked like Doskozil had won but they then admitted there had been an issue with an Excel sheet they used to count the votes and that Babler won the vote… In any case it made the SPÖ look like stupid amateurs. Like imagine Bernie Sanders & Joe Biden (but both quite a bit younger) constantly dissing themselves and you get the mess that is the SPÖ.
Hmmm… Might be a good idea to avoid beer halls in Austria right now…
Then minister of inner affairs Herbert Kickl (who is now likely to become chancellor)
Is he? Every single party has said they will not be forming a coalition with Kickl.
My bet is that either the FPÖ drops Kickl (which is possible but unlikely since he brought them their best result in all of their history, 29%), forming a coalition with the ÖVP (People’s Party), or they refuse to drop him (more likely) and the ÖVP forms a coalition with the SPÖ (social democrats) and NEOS (economically right (less regulation), else left).
Yes, I fully agree. I phrased myself badly since I should have used “possible” instead of “likely”. My bad >~<
Even tho there is a 3rd way in which the ÖVP kicks Nehammer and the “Brandmauer” (stance against right wing populists) with him and forms a coalition with the FPÖ I agree the Grand coalition (ÖVP & SPÖ) is the more likely option they could get NEOS or Greens into the boat (both would get them a 2/3 majority) but they don’t need to to get a simple majority. As for why it is likely: the ÖVP can stick to their word that a coalition with the FPÖ is out of question and it would be the major party in any non-FPÖ coalition, it could keep Nehammer as a chancellor.
As for the SPÖ they could showcase Babler’s econimically social politics by getting the ministry of health and education (and maybe if they are really good at negotiating the finance or agriculture ministry as well) which could boost their reputation whilst maybe silencing Doskozil.
Further the SPÖ could delegate the hot potato that is migration to the ÖVP and give them the ministry of inner and outer affairs.
They just need someone with a unique yet zany mustache to step forward as leader now.
… maybe they just need another Habsburg. Surely there’s still some kicking around somewhere, as big as that family was.
Karl Habsburg currently would be the emperor. But obviously he simply has the same rights as any other citizen (doesn’t even have a “von” anymore), as it should be, so he isn’t politically relevant
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