Austrian Elections & Politics - Version 1.0

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I just met a girl from Vorarlberg.

What was her opinion on the elections? I assume this was your first question upon meeting her.

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#BringBackOurGnomes

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Were the gnomes returned by the way?

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Were the gnomes returned by the way?

No, the 400 SPÖ-garden gnomes are still missing.

But some SPÖ-campaigners decided to hide for a few hours into the night, next to a spot where they deployed garden gnomes recently and it turned out that a ÖVP-guy (and a few others) took them away. As the ÖVP-guy was caught red-handed by the SPÖ-campaigners, they called the police which pressed charges against the gnome-thieves ...

I'm glad some justice remains in the world.

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um, did Strolz eat a kitten recently?

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Is Fayman likely to go before 2016? Who would follow him?

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does either the BZO or TS have any local government seats anywhere?

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I meant more below state government - city councils and the like.

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To give you an example of how small municipalities in Austria can be, here one municipality that will elect its council and mayor tomorrow:

Großhofen:
86 inhabitants
Council with 13(!) members, plus mayor - more than 15% of the village's population hold elected office!
Wiki

The shocking thing about this is that this municipality is not even the smallest one in Austria, there are loads of others with similar sizes or even fewer inhabitants - Gramais in Tirol has 54 inhabitants, Namlos (that municipality's name literally means "name-less"; that just as a sidenote ) has 85, Hinterhornbach has 90... And all of them have a full-functioning (and paid) council (around 10 council members, in NÖ often more), a mayor, a municipality secretary...

it's almost like a rural welfare scheme.

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If the FPÖ ends up as the strongest party in 2018, but SPÖVP still have a plurality, which government would be most likely?

SPÖVP-Greens, I guess. Or ÖVP-SPÖ-Greens.

It's also possible that FPÖ comes out as the strongest party and SPÖVP somehow still retain their own majority, with no further party needed.

No chance of another FPÖVP government?

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And the Netherlands, jammer, look at the latest polls

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True. Rather amusingly it seems that almost every party has led in the polls at least once since the last election. Right now we seem to be in a PVV surge, but for some reason D66 just ran up in the last poll. Also, inexplicably Ipsos shows routinely completely different results from the other posters, which is, um, odd.

Anyway Dutch parliaments never seem to last their full term so I like to keep in track of the polls twists and turns.

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the PVV has two different wings from what I remember - Wilders is an economic liberal, but his coalition contains "fiscal populists" or whatever they like to be called.

(and would an "economic liberal" really support something like a tax on headscarves as Wilders proposed once?)

I think we probably should start a thread for the municipal Dutch elections soon, so I don't derail poor Tender's thread.

@ Tender, you never answered my question. Is there any chance of another FPOVP coalition?

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15% for a Green Party is pretty good. Those sorts of parties have a very natural ceiling to their potential (unless in very peculiar situations like baden wurttemberg)

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In the scenario where Red-Greens and FPOVP are tied, who are NEOS likelier to jump in bed with?

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Tender, is at always a binary PR or FPTP choice when reform is brought up? No mentions of say, MMP or STV?

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Oh whoops haha, didn't realise the conversation carried on in the next page.

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any chance the SPO will topple Faymann?

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I'm guessing the SPO > GrEOS defectees are angry at the SFPO coalition in Burgenland?

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I'm pretty sure it's impossible mathematically to extract the OVP from government (barring some sort of Tangentopoli event)

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What's the threshold for Vienna?

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How many immigrants are even in Upper Austria anyway?

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Interesting. How many of these foreigners are FPO disapproved or from a visible ethnic minority? (I don't think they'd mind at say, German expats)

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Yes, the 'first victim' myth has had some unpleasant consequences hasn't it?

The "first victim" myth is still strong among voters ... (at least 29% say "Yes", with a ton undecided or neutral about it).

A "Heute/Unique Research" poll conducted in May (for the 70th anniversary of the end of WW2), shows the following:

"The capitulation of the Wehrmacht on May 8, 1945 was a day of liberation."

53% Yes
  8% No
21% Mixed/Neutral
17% Undecided

"It would be about time now to draw a final line under the Holocaust."

52% Yes
24% No
19% Mixed/Neutral
  5% Undecided

"Austria was the first victim of Nazi-Germany."

29% Yes
22% No
32% Mixed/Neutral
18% Undecided

http://www.heute.at/news/politik/art23660,1156623

...

Any crosstabs? Are these young or old people saying these things?

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Wait, what happened to the Turkish party?

The SPO really needs to roll Faymann