Austrian Elections & Politics 3.0 - Parliamentary Election: Oct. 15

[Tender Branson]

Kurz, Kern & Strache will all talk with President VdB today, after their party committees all approved coalition talks with the other parties. Even Kern got full support for coalition talks, after the stable election result for the SPÖ.

[AtorBoltox]

Does anyone else feel like a 31 year old should not be head of government?

[Tender Branson]

Does anyone else feel like a 31 year old should not be head of government?

What's the problem in your opinion ?

[AtorBoltox]

Does anyone else feel like a 31 year old should not be head of government?

What's the problem in your opinion ?

Lack of political and overall life experience

[Tender Branson]

Does anyone else feel like a 31 year old should not be head of government?

What's the problem in your opinion ?

Lack of political and overall life experience

He's been in government for 5 years as Foreign Minister and was Young ÖVP leader before that.

He has enough experience IMO.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Strictly speaking, he has been foreign minister for three years and ten months.

Which at least makes him more qualified than Donald Trump, if you want to hang the bar that low.

[rob in cal]

   There doesn't seem to be too much international or domestic uproar over the possibility of the FPO joining the government.  Last year, when Hofer had a decent chance of being elected President there seemed to be much more left-wing angst over that happening.  Could it be that the office of President, even if not that powerful of a position like in Austria, attracts more controversy than merely being part of a government?

[mgop]

   There doesn't seem to be too much international or domestic uproar over the possibility of the FPO joining the government.  Last year, when Hofer had a decent chance of being elected President there seemed to be much more left-wing angst over that happening.  Could it be that the office of President, even if not that powerful of a position like in Austria, attracts more controversy than merely being part of a government?

yeah. president is commander-in-chief and that's most important for world elite, they have their own puppet in that place since austria is outside of nato.

[Harlow]

I see the Communist Party of Austria ran with some expelled Greens called the Young Greens. Was that the whole youth wing of The Greens that got expelled or just some? and why were they expelled?

The whole youth wing of the Young Greens was expelled by Glawischnig, and the backlash to this decision is one of the reasons that led to her stepping down as leader of the party. Overall, the youth wing was much further to the left than the party itself, and the youth wing pushed for a more democratic process within the party that was denied.

[palandio]

The Young Greens were formed out of the merger of several regional split-offs from the Green-Alternative Youth. In 2011 the Young Greens were recognized by the Greens as their official youth organization instead of the Green-Alternative Youth, which had drifted into the far-left angle over the years.
In 2016 several regional chapters split from the student organization Green and alternative students (GRAS). They formed the Green students and were supported by the Young Greens. The Greens told the Young Greens not to support any list against the GRAS in university elections. Tensions escalated and in March 30, 2017 the Young Greens got expelled as the official party youth organization.
My take: This episode shows lack of diplomacy and judgement by former Green chairwoman Eva Glawischnig, but I do not have any compassion for the splitters and egotists in the leadership of the Young Greens. They got what they deserved and are a net negative for every political organization.

[Tender Branson]

Kurz and Strache apparently met in Strache's apartment yesterday for first talks:

http://derstandard.at/2000066307710/Erstes-Treffen-zwischen-Strache-und-Kurz-kolportiert

LOL, that was quick ...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

[rob in cal]

  So the FPO seems to be insisting on the interior ministry as their top demand for joining in a coalition with Kurz.  This is smart on their part as it would have a big impact on immigration policy, I would think, and thus let the FPO own that issue, which is a big one for most FPO voters.

[Tender Branson]

 So the FPO seems to be insisting on the interior ministry as their top demand for joining in a coalition with Kurz.  This is smart on their part as it would have a big impact on immigration policy, I would think, and thus let the FPO own that issue, which is a big one for most FPO voters.

Correct.

The Interior Ministry is their main demand for joining a coalition with anyone (also with the SPÖ). Still, even the FPÖ is bound to constitutional and European limits if they in fact get the Interior Ministry in the new coalition, so they cannot do whatever they want. But, it's still good for their image abroad I guess and it shows how far they have come (again).

http://derstandard.at/2000066233308/Freiheitliche-wollen-mit-allen-Gespraeche-fuehren

Other demands from Strache/FPÖ in a new coalition are more direct democracy, a general tax cut and an end to the tax-bracket creep for workers by automatically adjusting it to annual inflation levels (something that Germany has recently passed as well), continue the border controls, slash welfare payments for economic migrants to zero and more money for the military.

On the other hand, the FPÖ is opposed to the ÖVP-favoured proposal of more surveillance measures in public, such as introducing a Bundestrojaner - a software which is used by the Interior Ministry to spy on public computers, or a comprehensive mass storage law (which was ruled unconstitutional a few years ago after SPÖVP introduced it).

Kurz's primary goals for the next government are slashing the welfare payments for economic migrants, a comprehensive tax cut for workers and making the social system more efficient + lowering the Austrian debt to 60% of GDP. Kurz also made sure that his government would be modern and progressive, pro-EU and he'd put a big emphasis on it being pro-Israel and against any form of anti-semitism.

ÖVP+FPÖ (+NEOS) also favour a constitutional debt and deficit brake (like Switzerland and Germany have it). They now have the necessary 2/3 majority in parliament to pass it.

Also, here's a good article today in the NYT about Kurz (comparing him with Trudeau and Macron):

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/19/style/sebastian-kurz-austria-branding-style.html

[Tender Branson]

The absentee vote count is almost complete.

Only the results from Vienna and Styria are missing (some 20.000 votes).

I think we'll get to 80% turnout when rounded (79.7% right now).

https://wahl17.bmi.gv.at

[Tender Branson]

The German satire magazine "Titanic" is out with their first "attack" against Kurz:



"Time travel in Austria. Finally possible: Kill Baby-Hitler !"

... which is a reference to a NYT article which asked readers if they'd kill the young Hitler if they could travel back in time.

[Tender Branson]

The Austrian (far)-left apparently cannot fully digest the election result either, as this new cover from the ultra-leftist "Falter" newspaper shows:



"The Neo-Fascist".

(well, not entirely ... Feschist on their cover actually means "the new flawless, beautiful one".)

[Tender Branson]

Morph map (= places with a small area but with a high population are shown much larger than on a normal map):



Vote share of rural/urban areas/urban centers:

ÖVP+FPÖ+NEOS got 71% in the rural areas vs. 27% for the left-wing parties and so on.



Gains/Losses by party and area in a NYT-like map:

SPÖ:



ÖVP:



FPÖ:



Greens:



NEOS:



PILZ:



Voter transfers (2013 => 2017)

[Tender Branson]

The Financial Times' take:

Austria’s Sebastian Kurz leans towards tougher line on migrants

Young leader raises bar for far-right party but shares its stance on ‘political Islam’

You must be logged in to read this quote.

https://www.ft.com/content/98282146-b3d6-11e7-aa26-bb002965bce8?mhq5j=e6

[Tender Branson]

Something else:

NBZ (a migrant party, or well ... a Turk party with close ties to the AKP), only managed to get on the ballot in the state of Vorarlberg.

But it did get 1.4% there and in the 3 biggest cities between 3 and 4.2% of the vote.

[Tender Branson]

We have a FINAL result !

Every last postal ballot is counted.

https://wahl17.bmi.gv.at

And most importantly: turnout has passed 80% !

(To be precise: 80.001% of eligible voters have cast ballots ... That is up 5.1% from 2013.)

[Tender Branson]

We have a FINAL result !

Every last postal ballot is counted.

https://wahl17.bmi.gv.at

And most importantly: turnout has passed 80% !

(To be precise: 80.001% of eligible voters have cast ballots ... That is up 5.1% from 2013.)

63% voted for right-wing parties (ÖVP+FPÖ+NEOS+FLÖ)
36% voted for left-wing parties (SPÖ+Pilz+Greens+KPÖ)
  1% voted for parties that are neither right or left (Gilt+Whites)

ÖVP+FPÖ+NEOS keep their parliamentary 2/3 majority with 123/183 seats.

[mvd10]

Does NEOS position itself as a right-wing liberal party (like the VVD and to a lesser extent the FDP) or are they more like those European social liberal/left-liberal parties? I always assumed they were more like the latter but you've called them right-wing a couple of times (and you obviously know a lot more about Austrian politics since you're Austrian ).

[parochial boy]

Does NEOS position itself as a right-wing liberal party (like the VVD and to a lesser extent the FDP) or are they more like those European social liberal/left-liberal parties? I always assumed they were more like the latter but you've called them right-wing a couple of times (and you obviously know a lot more about Austrian politics since you're Austrian ).

They support something totally cretinous like a constitutional debt break. Safe to assume they're right wing I think

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

[...]
2.) Are Peter Pilz' political views (and that's his real name - wow) comparable with Boris Palmer's or Oswald Metzger's?

[...]
2. Don't know about Palmer and Metzger's views really.

Metzger was/is fiscally/economically conservative.
Palmer yesterday was a guest in the German talkshow hart aber fair, where he stated that Pilz was much more left-wing on welfare and economic issues than he (Palmer) himself.

Altogether I would say that Pilz is further to the left than Metzger and Palmer on most issues, particularly welfare/economy. But at the same time he managed to appeal to some "realo Green" voters better than the Greens because they could culturally identify better with him than with the original Greens.

Exactly. Palmer is regularly attacked by the Antifa. that terrorist organization even managed to have his FB shut down for a short time because he used the word Mohrenkopf.
In May, he took a pic of a group of refugees waiting at a train station, who didn't buy a ticket. Later they were caught dodging the fare. Palmer uploaded the pic on FB, commenting with the words if it is racists to "describe that traveling by train has changed in the last years" and if it is "xenophobic to feel uneasy by doing so".

Link to focus.de

He also wrote a book called We cannot help everybody, which was heavily criticized by his Green party colleagues, and just recently he wrote a commentary on The European in which he stated that family reunification of refugees would lead to a decrease in quality of education and that that in return would lead to less acceptance of the welcoming culture among middle-class intellectuals.

http://www.theeuropean.de/boris-palmer/12954-qualitaetsproblem-in-grundschulen-durch-fluechtlinge