Austrian Elections & Politics 4.0

[Omega21]

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.

Not really, most restaurants will keep the areas anyway. They are already built, so they are not going to tear them down.

[Omega21]

Probably because one looks like Voldemort and the other is the son of a Holocaust-denier ...

Is he also a denier? I thought the FPÖ had a strict policy against that...

[Omega21]

ÖVP+FPÖ presented their common education platform today (nothing really controversial):

http://derstandard.at/2000068669389/Lehrer-sollen-kuenftig-nach-Leistung-bezahlt-werden

Some points:

* more funding for kindergartens + elementary/middle schools and kids (to screen for and help talents early on), strengthening of social and creative skills of students.

* teaching kids Austrian/Western/liberal values early on, from kindergarten. Children from (Muslim) migrant backgrounds will have to pass a level of German before entering elementary school, or take additional German lessons if they are not passing that basic level after 2 years of kindergarten. If migrant parents with a potential radical background do not send their kids to school or tell them not to shake hands with female teachers etc., welfare benefits of these parents will be cut.

* more comprehensive, all-day schooling (to help out working moms in the afternoon)

* teaching kids more economic/entrepreneurial competence in school, such as e-learning, digital media, coding and how to create/run a business ...

* stricter controls of Muslim kindergartens and if necessary ... they will be shut down, if they do not follow state guidelines. Kindergarten lead teachers will need to have a mandatory university degree and outside financing (from Turkey, Saudi Arabia) will be banned.

* teachers will be rewarded if they produce good educational results among their students and teachers will have to take mandatory skill enhancement courses throughout the year to remain up-to-date.

I think that's unconstitutional, both according to Austrian constitution and EUHRC.

anyway fair play to FPÖ, unlike their Afd\FN\Ukip counterparts they actually look like a party capable of governing.

Why? A country is not obligated to nurture radicals and give them pocket money every month. If the parents are not fit to raise their children I don't see a problem even if the parents lose custody, let alone get a less pocket money every month.

[Omega21]

ÖVP/FPÖ presented their (IMO idiotic) plans today to increase max. daily working hours to 12 hours, or 60 hours per week (with only 8 hours of resting time between work days) to enable more flexibility for companies.

This is a main reason why I voted for Kern and the SPÖ, because nobody really wants to work 60 hours a week. People over companies, or at least leave the current 40-hour work week in place.

http://orf.at/stories/2417880

Why would the FPÖ agree on something like this? This is a very effective move to sh*t on all of the support the new coalition has gotten.

[Omega21]

The demands for increased military spending makes me wonder: are any politicians pushing for an abandoning of neutrality?

Don't think so, this would be really unpopular.

[Omega21]

ÖVP-FPÖ are cracking down much harder against illegal (economic) migrants:

* Similar to Denmark, the cash that these immigrants/asylum seekers have with them when entering the country will be confiscated and used to pay for their housing.

* Also, their cell phones will be confiscated to see which migration routes they took, if they have radical Islamist content on their phones such as beheadings, torture etc.

* If migrants entering the country turn out to have destroyed their passports to hide or fake their identity (many Arab/African men who came in the past years claimed to be 11 years, but had full-grown beards ... ), their asylum claim will be automatically rejected and the people deported.

So no significant change of immigration policy in Austria either. Never really even looked like the FPÖ pushed for something radical. It does not make a whole lot of sense to talk a lot about illegal migration, when everybody in the World still has the right to go to Austria and apply for asylum. Even if the asylum application is rejected, these people are very hard to deport.

The Danish proposal about valuables is just another symbolic effort with very little effect in reality. In the year since it was approved, it has been used 4 times to confiscate a total amount of 117.000 DKK (16.000 euro). I'm guessing that amount does not pay housing for very many people in many months, neither in Denmark nor Austria. The proposal might have a very marginal role in the considered "attractiveness" of Austria as a place to apply for asylum in, but since EU-countries does not want to make significantly tighter immigration policies, they love these symbolic tough policies so soon most countries will copy each other there. Also, the most decisive thing is probably still where there are many immigrants already, since people go where their family and friends have already gone, so there's a path dependency which means Austria, having taken a lot of migrants, will probably continue to get a quite high share of them.

True, but the symbolism (coupled with better enforcement/cuts in welfare money and more deportations) will work wonders and will very likely keep many potential economic migrants from the Middle East and Africa away. If people who are already here tell their relatives etc. abroad that policies are going to be significantly tougher in the next years, many people on the move there will likely opt for other countries who have a weaker policy on economic migrants instead.

Sad to see the criminalization of migration in another country.

"criminalization of migration"

LOL.

It's an act of self-defense against a political caste that has acted extremely naive over the recent years when it comes to culture-hostile mass immigration.

A small level of immigration is nothing bad, but it needs to be controlled and it needs to come from culture-similar areas and not backwards regions such as AfPak, Somalia and elsewhere.

If you allow such a policy, you will only import anti-semitism, religious extremism, misogyny and generally failed, illiterate people from the poorest regions that you simply cannot integrate into our labour market and society without also burdening the hard-working local population.

ok, well that is still criminalizing migration, even if you have a reason for it or if you support it. You can say that the Austrian government is criminalizing migration is "an act of self-defense" but I don't see how you can say that they are not criminalizing migration. I do not support it, so I am sad.

Are you an immigrant in Austria? I'm guessing that you're not. Well I am, and your statement can't be further from the truth.

[Omega21]

You left out the best picture

This one basically summarizes the whole election:

[Omega21]

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.).

Both parties definitely need to take action against this kind of sh*t, although FPÖ probably needs to do more than the SPÖ.

http://www.krone.at/1626307

[Omega21]

Health and anti-cancer experts, activists and doctors are launching a petition drive to kill ÖVP/FPÖ's plan to scrap the full smoking ban that would become law on May 1:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

https://www.thelocal.at/20180203/austrian-doctors-launch-anti-smoking-petition

Good. I may sign this. A full smoking ban is really needed.

This would be a step against personal freedom, and the current system should be kept. The current system of non-smoker and smoker areas has the best of both worlds, as the non-smokers are not affected. The "rise in public health" could also be achieved by banning fast-foods, sugar or alcohol, as the same amount of people (if not more) die of heart failure or diseases related to an unhealthy diet or alcohol abuse. It would be stupid to not allow someone to smoke in an area designed for that purpose because it affects no one else other than the smokers who choose to sit there. Or am I missing something here?

[Omega21]

* The FPÖ is now open to a possible binding referendum on the smoking ban (but only after 2021, when ÖVP/FPÖ wants to introduce a direct-democracy system). In the meantime, ÖVP/FPÖ plan to kill the smoking-ban that was expected to be enforced from May 1st and was agreed to by SPÖVP.

That's the right way to do it. Would love to see a direct-democracy system as soon as possible.

In your opinion, should they hold a referendum or should they introduce the ban immediately as a result of the signatures that were gather/are being gathered?

[Omega21]

BTW:

In the video, Janos Lazar was talking about Favoriten (the district in Vienna with the most inhabitants).

Currently, the district has 202.000 people and it also one of the fastest growing (2.1% annually over the past decade).

41% are foreign-born (which is not the highest percentage, Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus has 48%).

It is generally a working-class district (for Austrians and foreigners) and rents are comparably cheap there.

It is also the home of H.C. Strache, the FPÖ-leader. Therefore the FPÖ also gets pretty good election results there (~30%).

The FPO share of votes in the 2nd Bez. could get a bit higher after today's stabbing spree there.

http://www.oe24.at/oesterreich/chronik/Amoklauf-mit-Messer-auf-der-Praterstrasse/325051880

"Knife rampage on the Praterstraße, 3 severely injured"

[Omega21]

Thousands of hardcore FPÖ supporters attacked FPÖ-leader Strache yesterday on Facebook because he condemned the Austrian Anschluss to Germany 80 years ago and the crimes committed by Nazis:

Link

Comments ranged from "these things never happened" to "come on Strache, the fake news media is making these things up" and so on ...

It is really sad to think that these kinds of people still exist in Western Europe...

Are there any estimates or "educated" guesses on how many of these neo-Nazis still exist in Austria?

[Omega21]

Hey Tender, from 0 to 10, how would you rate the current government compared to the old one?

[Omega21]

New scandal just went out...

http://m.oe24.at/oesterreich/politik/FPOe-Politiker-Nazi-Posting-auf-Facebook/332845430

They really should clean house in their party, even though he was a kid this should not be acceptable.

[Omega21]

A high-ranking FPÖ official in FPÖ Interior Minister Kickl's ministry has been exposed by the "Profil" magazine for uploading YouTube videos with the following model airplanes:



http://www.heute.at/politik/news/story/Manuel-K-FPOE-Mann-veroeffentlichte--Nazi-Flugzeug--Videos-45647266



Profil filed a lawsuit against the FPÖ-official for violating Austria's anti-Nazi laws.

No comment yet from Kickl, Strache & Co.

Seriously?

This is a Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and this is exactly how it looked like. I am all for punishing people who support the Nazi ideology and I think these people should be incarcerated, but this is something that doesn't even come close.

It was a legendary aircraft (one of the very little "good" things that came out of WW2), so I see no problem in having a model of the first ever rocket powered aircraft representing how it truly looked.

If this is what the Goverment considers as "Nazi", then I'm completely lost.

The exact plane on display in Berlin has a swastika on it

[Omega21]

A high-ranking FPÖ official in FPÖ Interior Minister Kickl's ministry has been exposed by the "Profil" magazine for uploading YouTube videos with the following model airplanes:

(picture)

http://www.heute.at/politik/news/story/Manuel-K-FPOE-Mann-veroeffentlichte--Nazi-Flugzeug--Videos-45647266



Profil filed a lawsuit against the FPÖ-official for violating Austria's anti-Nazi laws.

No comment yet from Kickl, Strache & Co.

Seriously?

This is a Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and this is exactly how it looked like. I am all for punishing people who support the Nazi ideology and I think these people should be incarcerated, but this is something that doesn't even come close.

It was a legendary aircraft (one of the very little "good" things that came out of WW2), so I see no problem in having a model of the first ever rocket powered aircraft representing how it truly looked.

If this is what the Goverment considers as "Nazi", then I'm completely lost.

The exact plane on display in Berlin has a swastika on it

(picture)

The problem here is that the Messerschmitt model plane has a swastika on it.

Swastikas are banned under Austria's anti-nazi law (except when shown in museums or in film productions that are not used for nazi-propaganda).

Also, the combination FPÖ-official in the FPÖ-led Interior Ministry using a model plane with a swastika on it is ... tough. Without the swastika on it, it might be slightly different.

Also, the model you showed is likely in a German museum.

Yeah, it is in Berlin.

I mean I understand the laws, but how far does it go lol... Stamps, War memorabilia, and anything with a Swastika on it people should pretend it doesn't/didn't exist.

Personally I think it's just watering down history. Besides, nowadays there are more hardcode "Nazis" in America than in Austria.

Either way, not sure why the FPO official would do something like this, it's like a lot of them have a fetish for getting pounded by the media and public.

[Omega21]

Because obviously some FPÖ guy's little model airplane is a bigger problem and should be a bigger news story than the violent crime, welfare abuse, radicalization, and disrespect for our countries that have now become par for the course all over Western Europe, including Austria.

I was really surprised that the ultra Lefties didn't post an article named "FPO FLIES SWASTIKA HIGH OVER AUSTRIA!!!!". Lol

[Omega21]

  I'm intrigued by the 28% of SPO voters who are somewhat approving of the government.

There are people who vote for the Left but agree with the current government on some issues, mainly immigration and such, just like Tender.

Most people now realize the issues of the "welcome policy" i.e. letting everyone in, just look at the recent sh*tstorm Merkel faced after a rejected Asylum Seeker murdered a girl in Germany.

[Omega21]

4 months from today, on 1 January 2019, gay marriage will become legal here.

https://diepresse.com/home/innenpolitik/5488454/Josef-Moser_Ehe-und-Eingetragene-Partnerschaft-fuer-alle

Justice Minister Moser (formerly FPÖ, now ÖVP) said in an interview that the government will implement the Constitutional Court ruling without any changes. A law will be passed in the fall.

This means that not only gays can marry next year, but also that the current gay Civil Union Law (which is more modern and fitting for 21st century relationships) will be available for hetero couples as well.

This is the last step on this topic, because full adoption rights and reproduction rights + 3rd gender ID laws are already available to gay people.

Good. No reason why Gay people shouldn't be allowed to Marry.

Although I find 3rd gender laws of some countries very infringing, like the ones in Canada for example. Hopefully, we won't see such freedom of speech limitations in Austria.

[Omega21]

Vienna Green Party leader Maria Vassilakou has announced her retirement today after 13 years in that job + her retirement as city councillor in mid-2019.

This will make early Vienna state elections more likely now. Regularly planned for 2020, they could happen in the spring or fall next year, because the SPÖ could see a favourable window opening for them. The new leader of the Greens will only get elected in November and would only take over as new Green city councillor by mid-2019. That wouldn't be enough time to get a profile for the snap election and the SPÖ could benefit from the leadership change.

The more extremist, ideological David Ellensohn and the preferred choice of Vassilakou, Peter Kraus, have already declared their candidacies to replace her as party leader.

FPÖ+ÖVP+NEOS are already calling for new elections because of her retirement, while the SPÖ - officially, for now - repeated that their coalition with the Greens will hold until 2020.

https://kurier.at/politik/inland/maria-vassilakou-geht-neustart-bei-den-gruenen/400107083

One look at his Twitter made it obvious what he is. Retweeting stuff like

"Jetzt sind es die Ausländer.

Dann die Menschen mit Behinderungen.
Dann die Homo- und Transsexuellen.
Dann die Hartz IV- Empfänger.
Dann die Alleinerziehenden.

Alle, die nicht ins gewünschte, deutsche, klassische Familienbild passen.

Es wird nicht aufhören."

Classic fear mongering that the Nazis are coming back...

He also proudly states how he was a part of the movement to dig up a dead Pilot from WW2 that was buried in a Plot of Honour.

Seriously, if his best achievement was digging up a dead soldier after 70 years (one that was not a war criminal), he has no place in politics whatsoever.

[Omega21]

MP Reinhard Bösch (FPÖ) has come out with a controversial plan over the weekend, where he called for Europeans to militarily seize and occupy/colonize land in Northern Africa to keep the migrants from reaching Europe.



https://derstandard.at/2000086623328/FPOe-Wehrsprecher-regt-Besetzung-von-Boden-in-Nordafrika-an

The Greens and all others (except the ÖVP) attacked him, saying he has "Erwin Rommel in his mind".

A dumb idea considering Austria is neutral, I just don't get the comparison to Rommel.

[Omega21]

New general election poll for "Heute" newspaper (n=800, phone+online, Sept. 3-6):

SPÖ-voters disapprove by 82-18.

Either SPO voters are very dumb, or they are brainwashed into being against the government because you know, they are Nazis...

Objectively the government has mostly been doing a good job, so I fail to see how people can just stick to their ideologies and say they disapprove, even though they approve of most of the things the government has actually done.

[Omega21]

A major judicial appointment is creating controversy right now:

Hubert Keyl, an FPÖ apointee to the Federal Administrative Court, is being criticized for calling Austrian conscientious WW2 objector Franz Jägerstätter a "traitor" several years ago in an editorial of a far-right newspaper.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

He wrote: "A Wehrmacht dodger is a traitor and should be properly sentenced and not beatified."

He's also a friend of convicted Neo-Nazi Gottfried Küssel.

https://twitter.com/doew_at/status/1040646608017346561

https://derstandard.at/2000087411275/Appelle-an-van-der-Bellen-um-Richterkandidat-Keyl-zu-verhindern

https://kurier.at/politik/inland/weiter-aufregung-um-ernennung-des-freiheitlichen-keyl-zum-bvwg-richter/400119119

SPÖ+Greens+List Pilz and NEOS are all very critical about the appointment and asked President Van der Bellen to intervene. VdB has the power to block him as a judge.

I agree that a guy like Keyl should not serve in this position, even though he now argues that "he distances himself from all forms of National-Socialism". I would also like the ÖVP to speak out on this issue.

Definitely should not be allowed to serve as a Judge.

Also, do you think some of these loonies would move to a NPD party if it existed in Austria?

The FPO definitely need to find a way to weed out all of the Nazi sympathists, at least the ones who were public about it.

[Omega21]

Wew lad

Oh my...

Very lengthy list indeed, a party-wide Nazi purge is definitely overdue.

Do things like these happen in the Netherlands' right-wing parties?

[Omega21]

Wew lad

Oh my...

Very lengthy list indeed, a party-wide Nazi purge is definitely overdue.

Do things like these happen in the Netherlands' right-wing parties?

Look, I would still vote for the FPÖ. But this does show that this is an issue that is widespread. It's in the DNA of the party. Which is something we probably all knew, but I also sort of expected it to be slightly more rooted out. It isn't, and that's sad. It wouldn't prevent me from voting for them. But still.

In the Netherlands this is much less the case, as nationalism has been defined as anti-Nazi here -- it is part of the national (and nationalist) narrative to be opposed to Nazism. That said, as WW2 becomes ancient history and memories of the brutal occupation of the Netherlands fade away, and as multiculturalism becomes more of a nightmare, some people on the far-right are unfortunately becoming more sympathetic to this type of thinking, and we may soon see this in Dutch political life. Ultimately I suspect the Dutch far-right may indeed move in this direction, which is morally reprehensible but, I fear, may be inevitable.

Thanks for the detailed input!

Yeah, I would also probably vote FPÖ, but would still like to keep the Kurz ÖVP as the bigger coalition partner.

Hopefully, the rise of the right across Europe will decrease the number of cases likes these popping up, as the old status quo of letting everyone into Europe was counterproductive and just fueled the growth of the extreme right.