Austrian Elections & Politics 3.0 - Parliamentary Election: Oct. 15

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The Vienna Philharmonics Orchestra plays, then VdB will deliver his inaugural speech.

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"I stand here in front of you as a refugee child and with great confidence in the future."

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VdB thanks Hofer for the election campaign and on achieving his outstanding (sic!) election result.

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"No matter who you love, men, women, people of the same sex, your smartphone ..."

Laughter from the audience.

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Van der Bellen about the fear of terror, climate change and fast technological changes:

"When I was a kid in school, I was looking down the 3 meter board in the swimming lesson and was like F**k, really ? But I eventually took the jump. I also took the 5 meter jump ..."

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"Let's believe in freedom, justice and solidarity - things that have made Austria GREAT in the past."

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"Politics is a craft, something where people want solutions."

Kern and Mitterlehner look pissed ...

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This speech is awesome.

The total opposite of Trump's speech.

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"Please let me close with a reference to the youngest in the audience here today ... we, who are here today, we who are of medieval appearance (*laughter*), we need your courage and bravery because you will build our future."

Or something like this.

I hope I can post the English version of his speech here.

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The ceremony now ends with the playing of the national anthem.

VdB will then walk over to the Hofburg (our "White House"), together with citizens.

The SPÖVP government will then offer their resignation to the President.

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The journalists were also amused by VdB's often humorous speech.

At one point he referred to himself as "no indigenous Austrian".

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Some pictures of VdB's swearing-in ceremony:

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VdB walking to the Hofburg:



Now lunch and at 3pm the SPÖVP government will offer their resignation.

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Now lunch and at 3pm the SPÖVP government will offer their resignation.

What?

Once a new President is sworn in, the government traditionally offers its resignation.

Traditionally, the new President declines (but it's quite interesting now that they are in such a bad shape).

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Now lunch and at 3pm the SPÖVP government will offer their resignation.

What?

Once a new President is sworn in, the government traditionally offers its resignation.

Traditionally, the new President declines (but it's quite interesting now that they are in such a bad shape).

VdB has declined to dismiss the government.

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Here is the full speech:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/alexander-van-der-bellen/%C3%B6sterreich-das-sind-wir-alle/1432977910080580

I found no English translation so far, but just translate it with Google or something.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt-k5Bri7Sk

[Tender Branson]

Here is the full speech:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/alexander-van-der-bellen/%C3%B6sterreich-das-sind-wir-alle/1432977910080580

I found no English translation so far, but just translate it with Google or something.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt-k5Bri7Sk

I just saw that this is the draft speech, not the one delivered.

So, the humorous parts that VdB included during the speech were mostly improvised.

Too bad that you cannot understand it fully if you are a non-German speaker.

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SPÖ and ÖVP cabinet members are talking until 2am in the night about an updated coalition agreement and work schedule for 2017.

They will then start again at 8am tomorrow.

According to Ö24, which has a live-ticker (but is also a sensationalist tabloid), the current "security group" consisting of the Defense Minister and Interior Minister are already debating for 3 hours and are behind schedule. Ö24 interprets this as a bad sign, but it could also be a good sign because they usually work together quite closely.

Still, I wouldn't be surprised if this coalition blows up tomorrow. I guess Kern and the SPÖ wants new elections and are sick and tired of the ÖVP's roadblocks ...

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The SPÖ gets their best polling numbers since early 2013 in the new "Heute" poll:



http://www.heute.at/news/politik/Umfrage-SP-nur-mehr-3-hinter-Blauen-VP-stagniert;art23660,1393257

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SPÖ and ÖVP continue to talk all day about their coalition program "update". Maybe they'll continue even tomorrow.

Today, the mood was much better and a few chapters have been agreed on.

Some tough areas are still very hard nuts to crack they said, but they are optimistic.

...

Plus: I was watching the Ö24 live stream yesterday and it seems Research Affairs (their pollster) will include a federal election poll next week with Sebastian Kurz as hypothetical ÖVP-leader. At least that's what the Research Affairs woman said. It will be interesting to see by how many points Kurz will bump up the ÖVP. Probably to a 3-way tie, with the FPÖ losing 5% compared with current polling.

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 If I read Der Standard's article correctly the sides are differing on the migrant question, with OVP wanting the 17,500 upper limit, and the SPO instead wanting to focus on concrete measures to encourage people to return, such as higher return bonus, and foreign aid to countries that cooperate with accepting their citizens back.  I like both ideas.

Yeah, at the end there will likely be some compromise (lowering the quota and more incentives for asylum seekers to return home etc. or more deportations).

Still, it would be better if they find a way on how to deport the ever increasing number of "tolerated" asylum seekers who are illegals (people who have thrown away their passports and cannot be deported anymore, because their countries are not willing to take them back - many of them are die-hard criminals, murderers, rapists, drug dealers etc. and still collecting welfare money). Their number is now more than 6.000 already.

BTW: Kern has scrapped his planned Israel-trip starting tomorrow and will remain in Vienna. This is a sign he takes the talks more seriously now, rather than favouring new elections.

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Here is the source for my post above:

https://kurier.at/chronik/oesterreich/wien-6165-fluechtlinge-koennen-nicht-abgeschoben-werden/241.742.435

I need to clarify that there are 6.200 asylum seekers alone in Vienna, whose asylum requests were denied but who cannot be deported to their countries of origin for various reasons.

Still, they are illegals and despite their rejected asylum status they still collect welfare money and still they commit (often serious) crimes ...

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SPÖ and ÖVP started their government "update" talks again today and will continue tomorrow and early next week.

After the mood was pretty good yesterday and some issues were agreed on, the mood is worse again today because the Interior Minister talked with the press about some details of the talks (which apparently Kern didn't like). Kern wants the cabinet members to shut up until everything is finished, then every minister should sign the updated deal - so that the ministers can be held accountable if they are not living up to the points they have agreed on.

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Kurz: when Justin Trudeau is just too old for you...

Kurz really is the Austrian Justin Trudeau. The media hyped him over the past few days of coalition talks as "coming out of them unscathed" and some insiders are reporting that he and Duzdar (SPÖ) are working out a nice integration package for immigrants.

It remains to be seen though if Kurz also performs as well when he becomes ÖVP-leader and their frontrunner, when the attacks from the other parties are going to start ...

Anyway, coalition talks continue today into the night and probably tomorrow too. Sources say SPÖ and ÖVP are close to a comprehensive package for their last 1.5 years and the biggest hurdles in the way are how to finance them (the ÖVP's finance minister wants to trim the budget deficit down to below 1%) and Chancellor Kern's covert leanings towards snap elections (which means he still might blow up the talks and call new elections).

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BREAKING:

SPÖ and ÖVP party committee meetings have been set for tomorrow and Kern and Mitterlehner will have an appointment with President Van der Bellen.

This either means early federal elections, or that an agreement has been reached in the talks.