2009 State and European Parliament Elections in Austria

[Bono]

The FPÖ will nominate Lower Austrian FPÖ-leader Barbara Rosenkranz as their candidate for the 2010 Presidential Elections. This should be really interesting, because Rosenkranz is a posterchild of FPÖ-policies. Strongly right-wing and nationalist, she`s married with a Nazi and they have 10 kids together. Right now she`s pushing to ban minarets in Lower Austria.

I guess she could get about 40% of the votes.

LOL

[Tender Branson]

The FPÖ will nominate Lower Austrian FPÖ-leader Barbara Rosenkranz as their candidate for the 2010 Presidential Elections. This should be really interesting, because Rosenkranz is a posterchild of FPÖ-policies. Strongly right-wing and nationalist, she`s married with a Nazi and they have 10 kids together. Right now she`s pushing to ban minarets in Lower Austria.

I guess she could get about 40% of the votes.

LOL

Don´t underestimate the stupidity of the Austrian electorate ...

(While 40% is the high ceiling, I could see her getting 25-30%, which is the natural ceiling of the FPÖ-candidate right now, but remember that the Austrian electorate currently splits about 60-40 to the Right and it will be important to see if the ÖVP-party electorate comes out in favor of Rosenkranz or not, when no ÖVP-candidate is running. I guess they will to some extent. Also remember that the SPÖ and their candidates did highly overpoll before recent elections and then crashed and burned on election day. President Fischer could be facing the same fate on election day. Another fact benefitting Rosenkranz might be the backing of Austria's largest newspaper "Kronen Zeitung", which is already printing her xenophobic editorials en masse in recent weeks. The "Kronen Zeitung" is read by 3 Million Austrians each day, or about every 2nd voting-age Austrian. That will give her a big platform in the debate. Here´s to hope that other newspapers like the Standard or the Presse will pick her Nazi-platform apart during the campaign and that the Austrian electorate doesn't give her a (good enough) chance.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I do hope that the BZÖ nominate someone called Guildenstern...

[Tetro Kornbluth]

I do hope that the BZÖ nominate someone called Guildenstern...

Oooh.. will they debate? With Tom Stoppard as chair o/c.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I do hope that the BZÖ nominate someone called Guildenstern...

Oooh.. will they debate? With Tom Stoppard as chair o/c.

Hopefully. Stoppard has such a hilarious voice that the opportunity must not be missed!

[Хahar 🤔]

I'm prepared to see Austria give a higher vote to the Nazi than Germany ever did.

[Tender Branson]

Will Canori's KFPÖ be disaffiliated from the FPÖ?

I doubt it. They are in a bad situation right now. Most of the KFPÖ hates the members of the now FPK and the proposed KBZÖ and don`t want to integrate into the larger FPK. Should be interesting what they decide to do. I think the most likely scenario will be a clear word of action from federal FPÖ-leader Strache, that if they don`t integrate into the FPK, the federal FPÖ will dry up the funds for the local party or whatever.

New seat composition in parliament, with Markowitz staying in the BZÖ-group and Huber also moving back to the BZÖ from being an Independent:

SPÖ: 57
ÖVP: 51
FPÖ: 39 (+5, Martin Strutz, Maximilian Linder, Josef Jury, Sigisbert Dolinschek, Stefan Markowitz)
Greens: 20
BZÖ: 15 (-6)
IND: 1 (+1, Gerhard Huber)

SPÖ: 57
ÖVP: 51
FPÖ: 38 (+4, Martin Strutz, Maximilian Linder, Josef Jury, Sigisbert Dolinschek)
Greens: 20
BZÖ: 17 (-4)

Sigisbert Dolinschek back to the BZÖ parliamentary group ...

SPÖ: 57
ÖVP: 51
FPÖ: 37 (+3, Martin Strutz, Maximilian Linder, Josef Jury)
Greens: 20
BZÖ: 18 (-3)

[Tender Branson]

New Market/TT poll for Tyrol:

47% ÖVP (+7 compared with 2008 state elections)
19% SPÖ (+3)
14% Greens (+1)
12% FPÖ (nc)
4% FRITZ (-14)
2% TC (+2)
2% Others (+1)

[Tender Branson]

Some updates on the weird happenings around the FPÖ/BZÖ "unification":

On January 16, a BZÖ/FPK party convention will be held in Carinthia, to determine the fate of the party. It will be a clash between the Scheuch/Dörfler (FPK)-clan vs. the Haider/Buchner (BZÖ)-clan. After the Scheuch-brothers announced that the Carinthia-BZÖ (now FPK) will join the Austrian FPÖ, the federal BZÖ under Bucher has launched a Reconquista to win over now FPK delegates to the federal BZÖ.

Also, Jörg Haiders mother Dorothea and his sister Ursula have come out to back Bucher`s BZÖ and not the Scheuch brothers. FPÖ boss Strache meanwhile has stayed silent in the past weeks, because of the failures that accompanied their "unification". Strache and Scheuch wanted at least 5 BZÖ MP`s in Austrian parliament to switch to the FPK, so they can form a new parliamentary club in Parliament and to get club funding by taxpayer money. Now they only have 3 members and they cannot form a new club.

Strache has also inherited the Hypo Alpe Adria banking scandal with the "unification" of the Carinthia BZÖ, an issue where every Austrian is either angry, laughing or pointing fingers at the Carinthians for their sheer incompetence in handling the matter and piling up huge amounts of state debt that is now bailed out by the regular Austrian taxpayer. Now these people are part of the FPÖ.

So, January 16 seems to be make or break day for Buchner to convince Carinthian delegates to remain with the federal BZÖ.

The biggest weight though has Haider`s widow Claudia, who has remained neutral until now. But if she speaks out in favor of Buchner, Strache`s and Scheuch`s Coup d'état could turn out to be a huge blunder in a very important election year 2010 (Presidential elections, 3 state elections incl. Vienna - where Strache wants to become Mayor ... lol)

Here`s the latest Market poll for the newspaper "Der Standard", conducted Dec. 21/22:

ÖVP: 32%
SPÖ: 28%
FPÖ: 24%
Greens: 12%
BZÖ: 4%

Compared with another "Market"-poll before the "unification" there`s no change when it comes to FPÖ and BZÖ, meaning that

A) many BZÖ voters in Carinthia still back the BZÖ and not the FPK
B) many BZÖ voters in Carinthia switched to the FPK, but the BZÖ increased their support in the rest of Austria

The ÖVP meanwhile is seen as the big winner of 2009: 52% say their situation has improved vs. 32% who say it has worsened.

The SPÖ, Greens and BZÖ are the political losers of 2009: 68% say the situation for the SPÖ has worsened vs. 14% who say improved, for the Greens it`s 62-12 and for the BZÖ 70-13.

The FPÖ is seen as a winner by 45-37.

[Tender Branson]

There`s also an increasing debate over banning the "Burka" in Austria, ahead of the Vienna elections, where the SPÖ doesn`t want to leave the rightist playing field to the FPÖ.

Therefore, the Austrian SPÖ-minister for Women, as well as members of the Chruch and liberal Muslim interest groups, as well as Green MP Efgani Dönmez (a Muslim) want to ban the Burkas.