Austrian Election - October 1, 2006

[Jens]

Took the test (and realised how long ago it is since I read anything in German )

KPÖ 317
Grüne 200
SPÖ 81
ÖVP -60
BZÖ -68
FPÖ -115

I'm pretty sure that I might agree with some of the policies of KPÖ but not the way they want to implement them. I would vote Grüne for sure. KPÖ makes me miss the old days with PCP, PCF, PCE, PCI, PC, KPD, KPÖ, CPN, CPGB, DKP, SKP, NKP, VAS and KKE

[Jens]

How many of the Catholics are regular churchgoers?

(PS got to love the similarity between Danish and German: Regelmässige katholische Kirchgänger = regelmæssige katolske kirkegængere)

[Jens]

Either a minority government by the SPÖ-Greens which is tolerated by the FPÖ or New Elections will be called.

Is this even possible? And wouldn't it destroy any credibility the SPÖ and Greens have?

Actually, it is quite a possible scenario if the Austrians were used to it. Denmark have had this type of government in many periods. It all depends on wheather you have "possitive" or "negative" parliamentarism. Possitive being that the government needs a majority for it, like Germany, Negative being that there has to be a majority against the government, it has to be voted down in parliament to fall. I the case of Austria, it would be nessesary for the ÖVP to vote against the government together with BZÖ and FPÖ to cause it to fall - that said, I don't know if Austria allows such governments.

[Jens]

Good for the ÖVP then.  Given the way that military contracts are usually set up, once you sink some money in, it usually is better to go ahead and finish the contract.  Dropping the Eurofighter now only makes sense if the Luftstreitkräfte is going to stop operating fighter aircraft altogether.

Which, of course, for a small country that couldn't defend itself anyways, is exactly the only sensible option.

But small countries can defend themselves. Look at Finland in WWII and the Swiss Army now.

Come on, the Finns fought bravely but lost anyway. The main reason for the drawnout war, was Stalin had killed the majority of the officiers.

Countries like Switzerland and Sweden where not attacted during WWII because of a simple cost-benefit analysis. An analysis that still stands today - why waste your time in mountains and forests, when you can conquer fatter and easier targets. If any of the major powers really wanted to conquer Switzerland they could.