Austrian Elections & Politics - Version 1.0

[bmw1503]

Arrived here through a Google search and now I'm completely addicted to this forum.  Just spent quite a few hours reading through the entire Austrian election thread...wow, what a phenomenal job you guys have done.  This election was absolutely fascinating to me, particularly since I will be starting at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna next August.

A question about the NEOS party - are they more of a right-liberal (super free market, anti-statist/libertarian...I'm thinking Denmark's Liberal Alliance or the German FDP) or social/left-liberal (slightly pro-market, soft environmental, more in keeping with -to use the Danish case again- Radikale Venstre or similar like the UK Lib Dems)?

Again, thanks for the excellent work on here!

[bmw1503]

A question about the NEOS party - are they more of a right-liberal (super free market, anti-statist/libertarian...I'm thinking Denmark's Liberal Alliance or the German FDP) or social/left-liberal (slightly pro-market, soft environmental, more in keeping with -to use the Danish case again- Radikale Venstre or similar like the UK Lib Dems)?

Again, thanks for the excellent work on here!

Well I'd question today's Lib Dems being used as an example for the latter, but NEOS are definitely the former.

Yeah, that's a fair point...I guess a better example might have been the Netherlands' D66 or even the GreenLeft there post-Halsema

[bmw1503]

bmw, welcome to the Forum btw !

Where do you come from ?

Hope you enjoy your stay in Vienna and your studies at the Diplomatic Academy.

I'm an American (from Pittsburgh, PA) but I'm currently doing my Master's in London at SOAS.  I spent a year at the Amerlinggymnasium in Vienna in between high/secondary school and university and have been looking for an excuse to go back to Austria since!

Looking at Austria, what has been really interesting coming from an American perspective is how much farther right-leaning young people, particularly young men, are compared to the population as a whole.  This is obviously in quite some contrast to the United States, where young people are much much more left leaning than the average voter.  There also seems to be a huge gender gap among young voters in Austria, which, while present in the US too, is much less pronounced. It would be fascinating to understand what the roots of this are...

The NEOS situation I also find interesting because if the party turns out to identify more with the right than left (which seems quite plausible given its leader is formerly of OVP and they seem to have the most free-market perspective of the parliamentary parties) it would seem to offer OVP the chance to stay relevant in inner cities, through OVP-NEOS coalitions (in the SORA exit poll something like 45% or so of university educated voters backed those parties (with probably enough in the future from Stronach and BZO voters to hit 50% I'd imagine)

[bmw1503]

So, SPÖ and ÖVP will start their coalition talks today.

Possible "cow/horse-trades" ?

The ÖVP gives up their opposition to a comprehensive all-day school, which the SPÖ supports.

In turn, the SPÖ gives up their millionaire-tax (or any other new taxes in general), which the ÖVP opposes.

...

Another possibility:

The SPÖ gives up their opposition to university tuition fees, which the ÖVP wants.

In turn, the SPÖ gets their federal minimum wage for all economic sectors of 1500€ (which the ÖVP now opposes).

What exactly is the debate around schools about? Does the SPO want to eliminate the AHS/gymnasium in favor of a completely comprehensive secondary school system like the US or UK, or merely want to push back the age at which children are tracked?

[bmw1503]

Sebastian Kurz (27), could become the youngest Austrian cabinet minister ever this year.

When he became State Secretary for Integration in 2011 at the age of 24, there was controversy because of his young age.

But he did a good job in the past 2.5 years and is now the 2nd most popular politician in Austria (after President Fischer) and the most popular cabinet member. He also got the most preference votes in the parliamentary election, more than Faymann and Spindelegger.

SPÖVP have said that they will cut the cabinet by 2 ministries and merge those 2 with other ministries (so they can say "we are a savings coalition").

Kurz could take over a newly created "Super-Ministry" for "Future Issues" (the coalition talks will show what this really means).

I met Kurz at an event several months ago, and he really seemed like a smart and decent guy.  The sort that could really broaden the OVP's appeal among at least some of the sort of voters they've lost to the Greens and NEOS.  And while a "Ministerium für Zukunftsfragen" does sound a bit silly, it's certainly the sort of platform that would give him a lot of opportunity to showcase  a more modern approach than the OVP might otherwise be able to muster

[bmw1503]

The complete collapse of Team Stronach sort of reminds me of what happened to the List Pim Fortuyn after the 2002 elections in the Netherlands.  Except, in stead of being killed, their leader has to flee back to Canada like Cinderella before her carriage turns into a pumpkin...I mean, has to pay Austrian taxes...

Although obviously the sample size is pretty small, it would seem that a lot of the former Stronach voters were either protest voters (and then to FPO) or low-tax/free-market types (moved on to NEOS)