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 >~<
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 Karl 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.
Edit: I corrected “Kurt Nehammer” to “Karl Nehammer”
Just one errata: his name is Karl Nehammer, but everything else is correct (sadly)
How tf did I get that one wrong. Must have been me writing Kurz one time to much and getting a stroke :')
Thanks for reading my stuff so carefully :3
Thank you for writing such a great summary! :)
Hmmm… Might be a good idea to avoid beer halls in Austria right now…
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.
Source (translated):
So, the attacker donated money to the “Identitäre Bewegung” - the same group Kickl called “worth supporting” and the head of the group Sellner wanted to meet the attacker and have a coffee or beer. Something he later brushes off as being thankful for the donation.
My bad for mixing up who donated to whom btw, I should have re-read that info tbh :<
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, environment 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.
So you’re a party in power, you’re clearly extremist, you send the police to raid the organization that’s investigating your extremism and you steal all the evidence. Next year you win the elections.
And, so, apparently this is in the middle of Europe, not in Venezuela.
Tbh they did lose after the whole H.C. Strache scandals got leaked by the German press and German comedian Jan Böhmermann made fun of it on television. Most of those scandals were back in 2019 when H.C. was head of party and vice chancellor and Kickl was the minister of inner affairs. Shortly after the Austrian government collapsed and the FPÖ went into opposition. And now, 5 years later it won with Kickl as head of party.
But yeah, this would be more fitting to some African or South American country than a Central European one. :')
Exactly. You also sell your country to a Russian oligarch while on drugs. This becomes a huge meme and essentially 100% of the popualtion has heard the story. 5 years later you win the elections and form the government.
I’d say these elections are a landmark in democratic failures of modern history.
Austria is top 20 HDI, the popualtion is educated and informed, there’s a free press, living standard is one of the highest in Europe, there’s a strong social security system, unions, Vienna keeps winning at being the most liveable city in the world (with 25% of the Austrian population living there). The list goes on.
How is such election outcome possible?
My main reasons for why Austria has gone down this route are that:
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Austrians are generally very chill apart from Vienna. They have that “Is ma wuaschd!” (I don’t care!) mentality and are lazier than most to stand up against injustice.
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Some right wing Austrians have mastered the ability to mask their political views. They would say something mainstream when publicly being asked about their political views but nothing straight up outrageous as they want to keep a positive image in the mainstream. They don’t want to let everyone know their views but rot the apple from the core. You only get to know their true colors at the bar table (after some drinks even) or behind closed doors. I had personal experiences where folks was acting nice towards foreigners / LGBTQ+ but as soon as they left they’d go on a rant or make fun of them. And you just awkwardly look around and search for people who are doing the same and depending on how many other folks you see you’d interfere or find an excuse to leave early, mumble “oaschlecha” (assholes) and never come back (unless you really have to).
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Austria wasn’t punished or humiliated nearly as hard in WW2 as Germany. They forged the victim myth in which Austria was the first victim of Hitler’s and the Reich’s ambitions. They brushed off the fact that the Wehrmacht was met with cheers from the locals as them not wanting to look suspicious and being deported. And since Austria came away with it and didn’t lose anything except them having to be neutral by law (an agreement made with the Allies and the USSR so Austria won’t be split up like Germany and Korea) they never really had to tackle the Nazi issue in their population. Over time this developed into a very Anti-German sentiment up to the point where Austrians consider themselves to be better than Germans because “Hitler became the ‘Führer’ in Germany whilst he didn’t even become an art student in Austria. He would have never made it here.” I remember an interview with a Kickl supporter in which she was asked the question wether she thinks that Kickl or the FPÖ were Nazis and she replied that she doesn’t know what makes you a Nazi since “it was never taught to us” (of course kind of a stupid excuse for being illiterate in history).
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Similarly to the AfD, the FPÖ has seen that social media is a great propaganda tool. They were arguably the first to use Instagram and YouTube ads and now pump out TikTok propaganda. This propaganda is being consumed by people with no/low critical thinking skills and they then consider themselves politically informed. Even worse the constant emotionalization makes them think (rationally) even less. This is why the FPÖ has slogans like “Your heart says yes” because they don’t want their voters to think with their brain, they just want an emotionalized, radicalized mass that is not questioning what the FPÖ is doing. And they are helped by the tabloids which sadly make the vast majority of Austria’s consumed press. They can be found everywhere since they are “free” and the masses take them and when they are finished they just leave them and so they spread literally everywhere. Now those big tabloids are usually owned by some rich dude or a consortium of rich dudes who think that neoliberalism or even anarcho-capitalism is the way to go (for them). So they are happy to influence their editors to write on topics that suit the AfD’s, FPÖ’s and even ÖVP’s views and in return those parties make economic politics for the upper class. This isn’t really considered corruption since in many cases money doesn’t flow but it is more like a symbiosis.
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… 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
They just need someone with a unique yet zany mustache to step forward as leader now.
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