Austrian Elections & Politics 4.0

[DavidB.]

... and a lot of young male MPs.

But no post with pictures of them?! Now Tender I have all respect for the fact that you prefer looking at young female politicians but do you not consider your fans who prefer to look at young male politicians? 

If they all look like Kurz, he can spare us these pics...

[DavidB.]

Halloween should be illegal in the EU. It is as much as an offense to European culture and traditions as people wearing burqas.

[DavidB.]

Are the FPO denialists?

They are one of the greenest radical right-wing parties. The ÖVP is probably worse on the climate and environmental issues, though who knows with Kurz.

[DavidB.]

My boy David Lasar was elected to parliament? Had completely missed that. Glorious news.

[DavidB.]

Also, it seems that ÖVP and FPÖ have agreed to roll back the public smoking ban - which is a victory for the restaurant and bar industry. Currently, every restaurant has to set up a smoking area, which is closed off from the non-smoking area. Business owners complained about fewer guests and bureaucratic hurdles. Under the new plans, every restaurant owner can decide on their own if they want to allow smoking or not (like it was the case until a few years ago).

Disgusting. Such a step back.

[DavidB.]

Difficult one. I don't know who I dislike more: the antidemocratic senile grandfather or the dangerous nutjob who would hand over all of Austria's classified information to Russia.

[DavidB.]

Any interesting foreign policy changes to be expected on Serbia, Republika Srpska, or Herceg-Bosna?

[DavidB.]

Kreisky was really anti-Israel, right? Hope Kneissl wouldn't be similar in that regard... Who is she, and what is her background?

[DavidB.]

Kreisky was really anti-Israel, right? Hope Kneissl wouldn't be similar in that regard... Who is she, and what is her background?

Still interested in this.

[DavidB.]

So Strache doesn't get a real portfolio? What will he be doing all day?

[DavidB.]

Funnily, the ÖVP wanted a 10% threshold (=640K voters) for referendums and the FPÖ 4%, but they somehow settled on a compromise with 14% of eligible voters ...

That's truly a lot. Almost impossible to reach, especially if signing over the internet is not possible.

[DavidB.]

The Israeli right-wing government will apparently semi-boycott the new Austrian right-wing government:

They are planning to only talk to (or invite) ÖVP cabinet members, but neglecting the FPÖ-members (incl. the FPÖ-appointed, but independent Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl - who actually grew up and studied in Israel and Jordan).

Bizarre and brainless move towards one of the most pro-Israeli governments in the EU.

[DavidB.]

Landbauer obviously knows all these texts by heart. He was the vice president. These texts are unacceptable and say a lot about the values of this fraternity and this person. Unfortunate and very telling to see that the FPÖ largely continue to support Landbauer, though secretary-general Harald Vilimsky disavowed the texts. Also interesting that Kickl isn't such a fan of an independent judiciary, but imo the texts do not warrant prosecution as they were not meant to be public.

[DavidB.]

Very good.

[DavidB.]

Don't think this is SPDization at all. Has much more to do with the specific issue regarding Landbauer.

[DavidB.]

Don't think this is SPDization at all. Has much more to do with the specific issue regarding Landbauer.

Given the FPO unwillingness to deal with Landbauer, I would say it's tarring all the party.

Perhaps; perhaps not. In any case not the same as SPDization.

[DavidB.]

Insane how many people who voted FPÖ in the GE 2017 stayed home yesterday. That was always going to happen to a certain extent, of course, as their electorate is simply less likely to vote in second-order elections, but the negative press for Landbauer undoubtedly contributed to the magnitude of it. Another effect has been that 1/3 of Stronach 2013 voters stayed home, only 1/5th voted FPÖ (probably much higher in the GE) and sizeable groups of voters went from TS to ÖVP and SPÖ.

[DavidB.]

I thought this article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German) was quite good on Landbauer and the fact that it seems one can get away with anything Nazi-related in Austrian politics nowadays. Can't say I fully agree with the alarmist tone and conclusions, but it was an interesting read. My main criticism is: was it ever different? The author of the article suggests that the Overton Window has shifted, but I don't know.

In other news, Strache came under attack today because in September he suggested independence for the Serb Republic within Bosnia in a TV interview to a Serb channel:
https://www.politico.eu/article/austria-heinz-christian-strache-under-attack-for-bosnia-comments

Had missed this. Good that he is breaking the taboo on this. Don't know if independence is the right way to go forward, but the current constellation doesn't work.

[DavidB.]

Why isn't anyone mentioning the NÖ (Lower Austria) SPÖ politician who is now in jail because he is suspected to have molested children? On top of that, it was found that he had a Nazi Cult in his basement (uniforms, grenades, propaganda etc.).

Part of the reason is probably that Nazi pedo gangs are clearly unrelated to the SPÖ ideology, but one cannot deny that there is an awkwardly close relation between neo-Nazi elements in Austrian society and the FPÖ. This means scandals with neo-Nazism hurt the FPÖ more than pedo scandals hurt the SPÖ. It's natural. On the other hand, scandals with expenses/accusations of corruption/unethical bonuses tend to hurt social democratic politicians and parties more than conservative politicians and parties.

[DavidB.]

Still, it seems that ÖVP/FPÖ's goal is to (...) encourage more people to enter the labour market again, by lowering the amount of funds for training.

How does this work, exactly?

[DavidB.]

Apparently the ORF has filed a complaint with the police against HC Strache for libel, because Strache had said that anchorman Armin Wolf spreads fake news. Ridiculous for ORF to seek to curb a politician's freedom of speech like that. The ORF should be independent.

[DavidB.]

So do ÖVP, FPÖ and NEOS now have a majority for the balanced budget thing?

[DavidB.]

They're on a roll! So inspiring, love it!

[DavidB.]

* Kurz/Strache/VdB and all major politicians commemmorated the 80th anniversary of the Austrian Anschluss (= annexation) to Germany and Hitler's speech to about 200.000 people in Vienna today. They also announced the creation of a new Holocaust memorial in Vienna + they are starting work on allowing up to 200.000 former Austrian Jewish residents who emigrated or were forced to leave to re-claim Austrian citizenship more easily.

Great news! I'll totally do this if a) I can keep my Dutch passport (in order for that to be the case, there probably has to be some legal clause that my grandfather never lost his Austrian citizenship and my mother and I therefore always had it) and b) I don't have to serve in the Austrian army.

[DavidB.]

The Austrian government has refused to stand with the UK, the U.S., Australia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Canada, Poland and a lot of other countries by not expelling one or more Russian diplomats. A coordinated EU response is the best signal, so this is disappointing. One of the clear disadvantages of the FPÖ in government.