Austrian Elections & Politics 4.0

[DavidB.]

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.

[Tender Branson]

Wew lad

Oh my...

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

For those who can't read German:

According to the link, the Mauthausen Committee has documented about 110 so-called "unique cases" of racism/Nazi-comments by major or local, unimportant FPÖ-politicians since February 2013.

That's an average of about 20 reported cases per year since 2013, out of a party vote of 1.3 million in the 2017 election.

While these offences should definitely be reduced and strictly sanctioned (which is what Strache and Co. are doing much more quicker this time), it's not really an alarmingly high number of incidents.

Compare it for example with the 30-40 murders and 60-80 murder attempts by foreigners each year, or the 500 rapes each year committed by foreigners.

If we have to choose, what is more relevant ?

20 annual cases of xenophobia by FPÖ-politicians or actual violence committed by hundreds of foreigners ?

[Tender Branson]

Pamela Rendi-Wagner has been officially presented as new, future SPÖ-leader today after a federal party meeting in Vienna.

She got the unanimous backing of the SPÖ leadership and will be elected new party leader by delegates at the November 23 convention.

https://derstandard.at/2000087809296/SPOe-Praesidium-designiert-Rendi-Wagner-als-Parteichefin

That means of all parties that were ever represented in the Austrian parliament since WW2, only the ÖVP never had a female party leader so far ...

[Former President tack50]

Pamela Rendi-Wagner has been officially presented as new, future SPÖ-leader today after a federal party meeting in Vienna.

She got the unanimous backing of the SPÖ leadership and will be elected new party leader by delegates at the November 23 convention.

https://derstandard.at/2000087809296/SPOe-Praesidium-designiert-Rendi-Wagner-als-Parteichefin

That means of all parties that were ever represented in the Austrian parliament since WW2, only the ÖVP never had a female party leader so far ...

Wait, just like that? No primaries at all? Or even just a contested convention in November?

That sounds quite bad. Are primaries or contested conventions normal in Austria? Or is the more usual method simply a meeting behind closed doors like here?

[Tender Branson]

Pamela Rendi-Wagner has been officially presented as new, future SPÖ-leader today after a federal party meeting in Vienna.

She got the unanimous backing of the SPÖ leadership and will be elected new party leader by delegates at the November 23 convention.

https://derstandard.at/2000087809296/SPOe-Praesidium-designiert-Rendi-Wagner-als-Parteichefin

That means of all parties that were ever represented in the Austrian parliament since WW2, only the ÖVP never had a female party leader so far ...

Wait, just like that? No primaries at all? Or even just a contested convention in November?

That sounds quite bad. Are primaries or contested conventions normal in Austria? Or is the more usual method simply a meeting behind closed doors like here?

Depends from party to party.

The old parties (SPÖ, ÖVP, FPÖ) still rely on the tradtional closed-door, backroom, conclave method to chose their new party leaders. Representatives of the state parties, unions (SPÖ) or farmers/chamber of commerce etc. (ÖVP) will then talk about candidates and ultimately select one. Sometimes, there are a few minor candidates - who get only 5-10% at the following convention. Also, the big parties want to show unity by only selecting and lining up behind a single candidate. Several candidates fighting it out at the convention would be seen as a weakness.

The more modern parties (Greens, NEOS, LiPi) have primary elements in their candidate selection process and there are mostly more candidates with a chance that party members/delegates can then vote for at the convention.

[Tender Branson]

Social partnership wage negotiations for 2019 have started recently between union and employer representatives.

Traditionally, the metal/steel workers and their union representatives are starting their bargaining talks with the employer side, followed by the retail workers.

The union representatives for the metal/steel workers have gone into the talks with a 5-6% pay rise demand for 2019 and the granting of a general additional 6th week of paid vacation for workers each year.

While the employer side called the demands "unrealistically high", today the ÖVP/FPÖ government came out in defense of the workers and called for "a significant pay rise next year above the inflation levels, so that workers can take their fair share of the growing economy."

Inflation is at 2% right now and the economy is growing at 3% right now, while productivity in the Austrian industry is up by more than 4% compared with last year.



https://derstandard.at/2000087864959/KV-Verhandlungen-Kurz-und-Strache-wuenschen-spuerbaren-Lohnanstieg

https://diepresse.com/home/wirtschaft/economist/5500911/Kurz-und-Strache-wuenschen-spuerbaren-Lohnanstieg

Currently, a lot is working out nicely for the ÖVP-FPÖ government: they win the messaging on asylum/immigration, they speak out in favour of high pay rises for workers, they have already lowered some taxes for workers, they have introduced a 1.800€/year child tax credit starting on Jan. 1, there will be a balanced budget in 2019 (maybe even in 2018 already). Plus, the opposition is in re-grouping mode right now and not that powerful.

[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.

[Tender Branson]

Cool new poll, conducted for Ö24 news:

74% of Austrians now support gay marriage (which will become legal in just over 3 months, on Jan. 1st, 2019).

Even 63% of FPÖ-voters support it.

That is significant, because the FPÖ opposes gay marriage and just recently started a last-minute effort to block the legalisation with a preferential proposal for hetero marriage because it "enables children being born". The ÖVP blocked the FPÖ proposal and said the government will implement the Constitutional Court ruling as outlined.

https://www.oe24.at/oesterreich/politik/Umfrage-74-fuer-Homo-Ehe/349677457

[Tender Branson]

Interesting fact:

Once Pamela Rendi-Wagner gets elected new SPÖ-leader in November, all 3 opposition parties will be headed by women.

Also, H.C. Strache will become the oldest party leader (he's turning 50 next year).

When Strache became FPÖ-leader 13 years ago, he was the youngest party leader at the time with 36.

Gone are the days when he appeared in discos to meet young people in search of new FPÖ-voters.

[DavidB.]

Also, H.C. Strache will become the oldest party leader (he's turning 50 next year).

He's aged well. Would still hit it.

[Tender Branson]

Also, H.C. Strache will become the oldest party leader (he's turning 50 next year).

He's aged well. Would still hit it.

FPÖ-TV The ORF went to the gym with Strache this weekend:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZeFNWo0DFY

[Tender Branson]

Here's an English article about Pamela Rendi-Wagner, the new future SPÖ-leader:

Austrian Social Democrats back new woman leader to renew party

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https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/austrian-social-democrats-back-new-woman-leader-to-renew-party-1.3639970

I think she definitely has the potential to bring the SPÖ back above 30%, because she's also appealing to NEOS, Green and List Pilz voters.

[Omega21]

Here's an English article about Pamela Rendi-Wagner, the new future SPÖ-leader:

Austrian Social Democrats back new woman leader to renew party

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https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/austrian-social-democrats-back-new-woman-leader-to-renew-party-1.3639970

I think she definitely has the potential to bring the SPÖ back above 30%, because she's also appealing to NEOS, Green and List Pilz voters.

What are her views on migration anyway?

[Tender Branson]

What are her views on migration anyway?

That's not really clear yet, because she's a doctor and the former Minister of Health - which means she rarely talked about migration and asylum.

There will be a press statement by her today, after being elected by the broader SPÖ committee (incl. state members), where she'll also outline first staff changes in the SPÖ under her leadership. It is expected that she'll change the General Secretary of the SPÖ and the parliamentary club leader and "fire" other people that worked for Kern as PM.

A first positioning on the issues will likely come after November 23, when she's officially elected at the SPÖ party convention.

[Tender Branson]

Interior Minister Herbert Kickl (FPÖ) is playing with fire again, after an internal e-mail surfaced in which the Interior Ministry wants to limit the information flow from the ministry to "critical" media to only the "smallest amount possible" ...

After Chancellor Kurz (ÖVP) and President VdB (Greens) attacked Kickl about it today ("That's an attack on press freedom that has no place in Austria !"), Kickl took a step back and said "he didn't mean it this way".

https://www.politico.eu/blogs/on-media/2018/09/austria-press-interior-ministry-lists-critical-media/

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-austria-politics-media/austrian-leader-rejects-far-rights-plan-to-shut-out-some-media-idUSKCN1M51HO

[Tender Branson]

Pamela Rendi-Wagner, the new future SPÖ-leader.

In the press statement, she just announced that she herself will also become parliamentary SPÖ group leader in late November (which means Andreas Schieder will be out and a normal MP again).

Thomas Drozda will become the SPÖ's new General Secretary (he was already Minister for Arts, Culture and the Media in the Kern government). Andrea Brunner will become Vice-GS.

[Tender Branson]

Interior Minister Herbert Kickl (FPÖ) is playing with fire again ...

Kickl insists he's committed to press freedom after his ministry instructs police on media communication

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https://www.thelocal.at/20180926/kickl

---

Yeah, Kickl should focus on deporting the criminal foreigners from the country and don't meddle with the intelligence agencies and freedom of speech.

[Tender Branson]

Something really astonishing is happening ...

After Chancellor Kurz (ÖVP) has been leading the popularity rankings for 1.5 years now, the new "Heute" news barometer finds Kurz dropping to 2nd place for the first time.

The SPÖ's future party leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner starts with an initial +27 rating, while Kurz is at "only" +16.

Outgoing SPÖ-leader Kern has totally collapsed and is now at -38 points.

But not only Kern has collapsed in the ranking, also FPÖ Interior Minister Kickl, who's at -35.

https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20180927_OTS0255/heute-umfrage-rendi-wagner-ueberholt-kurz-totalabsturz-fuer-kern

[Tender Branson]

New budget data for Jan.-Aug. still suggests that Austria could already see a balanced budget this year, one year earlier than planned by ÖVP-FPÖ.

For the first 8 months, the central government deficit was only 511 million € vs. 3.682 million € in the first 8 months of 2017.

That's a reduction of about 3.2 Bio. € compared with last year - which is worth some 0.8% of GDP (that was also the final deficit in 2017).

Compared with Jan.-Aug. 2017, revenues in 2018 are up by 5.3% so far while outlays are down by 1.2%

Obviously, these are the numbers of the central government budget only, without the states, municipalities and social security providers. But usually, states + cities have a balanced budget and the SSP even have a surplus. So, things are looking good.

https://service.bmf.gv.at/budget/akthh/2018/201808_HTML_BUDGET_F.htm

[Tender Branson]

The new SPÖ-leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner made her first appearance with the base today at the Lower Austria SPÖ convention, where state party leader Schnabl was re-elected.

The last few days have seen some flak from the Vienna-SPÖ and Styria-SPÖ, who were not happy that Rendi-Wagner chose Thomas Drozda instead of keeping Max Lercher as General Secretary.



Drozda of course is a close friend of her and even Max Lercher said that the Vienna and Styria SPÖ's should stop whining around.

Rendi-Wagner delivered a nice speech, where she outlined her plans to make the SPÖ first again in 2022. After the speech, she got minute-long standing ovations.



A new poll also shows that the SPÖ is about where it was before the Kern retirement debacle (28%) and has room to grow:

https://derstandard.at/2000088296566/Wechsel-von-Kern-zu-Rendi-Wagner-hat-SPOe-in-Umfrage

[Tender Branson]

Her speech:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umPAr_KU2Eg

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[Tender Branson]

The ÖVP-FPÖ government presented plans today for a "Nazi prohibition supplementary law".

Right now, Austria bans all kinds of Nazi-related symbols, numbers, codes, Hitler-salutes etc. - but the government now wants to broaden the law to also include Turkish "grey wolves" salutes, Croatian Ustasha symbols, slogans and salutes as well as IS/Al-Qaida and other extremist Muslim-related ones, plus Hamas, Hisbollah and PKK-related ones. Plus, the ones from left- and right-extremist and terror groups outlined in common EU-papers.

ÖVP-FPÖ stresses that the extension is not against religious beliefs, but targeted against all forms of extremism and terror.

It will be presented in the ministerial council next week and passed in the coming months. It will take effect on March 1, 2019.

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https://derstandard.at/2000088356818/Regierung-plant-Verschaerfung-bei-extremistischen-Symbolen

Good.

[Tender Branson]

FM Kneissl impresses with her language skills at the UN (she speaks 8 languages):

Austrian Foreign Minister begins her UN General Assembly speech in Arabic

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http://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2018/09/30/VIDEO-Austrian-Foreign-Minister-begins-her-UN-General-Assembly-speech-in-Arabic.html

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https://www.ksl.com/article/46398477/the-latest-austria-fm-gives-un-speech-in-4-language

https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article181713976/Karin-Kneissl-vor-den-UN-Oesterreichische-Aussenministerin-beeindruckt-mit-vielsprachiger-Rede.html

[Tender Branson]

The "Kurier" newspaper has a good new article out:

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The article has examined data from all elementary school students in Austria in 2017 and created maps with the share of non-German speakers.

Here is the map by Austrian district:

https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/R6JB8/2

And for Vienna districts:

https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/dsSJL/1

Among all Austrian districts + city districts, the city of Wels (governed by an FPÖ mayor, btw) has the highest share of non-German speaking elementary school kids (65% of all students).

Vienna has the 2nd highest share of non-German speakers with 59% of all primary school students.

Among Vienna districts, Margareten leads with 89% (!) non-German speakers in primary schools.

Followed by Brigittenau district (83%) and Ottakring with 82%.

Austria-wide, 30.3% of all primary school students are non-German speakers.

https://kurier.at/politik/inland/schule-in-not-wo-deutsch-eine-fremdsprache-ist/400134818

The fact that there are parts in Vienna and Austria where only 10-20% of school students are left as native German-speakers is highly disturbing ...

[BBD]

The "Kurier" newspaper has a good new article out:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

The article has examined data from all elementary school students in Austria in 2017 and created maps with the share of non-German speakers.

Here is the map by Austrian district:

https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/R6JB8/2

And for Vienna districts:

https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/dsSJL/1

Among all Austrian districts + city districts, the city of Wels (governed by an FPÖ mayor, btw) has the highest share of non-German speaking elementary school kids (65% of all students).

Vienna has the 2nd highest share of non-German speakers with 59% of all primary school students.

Among Vienna districts, Margareten leads with 89% (!) non-German speakers in primary schools.

Followed by Brigittenau district (83%) and Ottakring with 82%.

Austria-wide, 30.3% of all primary school students are non-German speakers.

https://kurier.at/politik/inland/schule-in-not-wo-deutsch-eine-fremdsprache-ist/400134818

The fact that there are parts in Vienna and Austria where only 10-20% of school students are left as native German-speakers is highly disturbing ...

Looks like current integration policies aren't working out so well. Interesting.