right-wing Austrian ... mmm

robert99

robert99

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PressTV-Austria in shock after far-right triumphs
Austrian far-right party wins first round of presidential election
Austria’s government was licking its wounds on Monday after a historic triumph for the anti-immigrant far-right Freedom party in a presidential ballot.
It won more than a third of the vote in Sunday’s election and will face an independent in next month’s run-off, dumping the country’s two main parties from the post for the first time.

A right wing Austrian politician ... mmm ... Godwin's Law! :gl:
 
Yes, I was as surprised as you all...

My explanation is that the two next placed candidates, a green candidate and a female independent candidate both got about 20 %, so the "liberal" voter basis was torn between these two. For that reason, I do have some hopes that in the second round, the green candidate will get elected.

Of course, this is the "punishment" by all those who feel disenfranchised as most governments in Europe try to help refugees.
 
The influx of refugees is the "punishment" for meddling and backing all the wrong forces in the Near East for more than a century, and continuing to do so to this day. Europe has benefited economically from this arrangement, but now we have received the bill, and not everyone is keen to pay.
 
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IS, I agree with you on this one.
However, tell that to the small-brained xenophobes who are supporting right-wing parties like AFD, FN, UKIP, FPOE and whatever....
 
Migrant crisis: Austria passes controversial new asylum law - BBC News
Austria has passed a controversial new law that restricts the right of asylum and allows most claimants to be rejected directly at the border.
Rights groups say the law undermines the principle of protection from war and persecution.
Austrian officials say they are also considering building a fence at the main border crossing with Italy.
 
Shock as Austrian Chancellor Faymann quits - BBC News
Austrian Chancellor Faymann quits
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann has resigned after losing the support of Social Democratic party colleagues.

Mr Faymann came to power in 2008 but has faced criticism within his party since the far right won the first round of presidential elections last month.

He told a news conference that Austria needed a chancellor who had his party "fully behind him".
 
robert99 said:
He told a news conference that Austria needed a chancellor who had his party "fully behind him".
Click to expand...

Well, it has obviously taken Mr. Faymann a couple of years to realize that.
The refugee crisis (if he does have an opinion on that, I am not close enough to judge that) is definitely not the only thing were people have been quite critical of him. I (as an Austrian living abroad) do not so much see him as paying the price for the recent right-wing successes, but rather as paying the price for being a lackluster politician for many years.

Some more information on the status in Europe:
How is the migrant crisis dividing EU countries? - BBC News
 
Luckily, it did not happen ... barely so :eek:.

Austria far right thwarted, Van der Bellen elected president - BBC News
A party founded by Nazis just lost the Austrian election — barely

I am on one side happy that I was able to participate in the election and help to thwart this right wing demagogue.

On the other side, I am more than shocked to observe that 50 % of my fellow countrypeople voted for a right-wing politician who even threatened that if he would be elected, he would "look whether the government is doing a good job, and, if not, dissolve the government". That is one very real power that the largely symbolic office of President of Austria holds, and it could have been used to move power in Austria to the right.
 
From what I understand, it is a reaction or protest to the mainsteam parties, but I don't understand people who vote for far-right politicians.:fp:
 
Indian Summer said:
Presumably mostly a reaction to the mainstream parties' handling of the immigration crisis.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

This guy is one of the "We will build a fence" school of politics that has become more popular recently, not only in Europe.

I have, however, to also tell you about one interesting part of Austrian History.

When I was still quite young, in 1986, there was already some controversy over an election of the Austrian president.
Kurt Waldheim, who was elected then, was criticized for ommitting some rather disturbing parts of his wartime service and membership in a National Socialist organisation before the war.

While he had been UN Secretary General before that, these revelations that came out shortly before the election, should have stopped him from being elected.

Unfortunately, the reaction of the Christian Conservative Austrian party backing him was to claim that only "certain circles on the US East Coast" want to bar this good man from becoming president, and the main subject of the campaign - that could only be described as unsavoury - was "We Austrians elect who WE want". The yellow background colour of the placards bore an uncanny resemblance to the yellow badges that Jews had to wear during the Nazi occupation. Many other covert or overtly anti-semitic stereotypes that should not be acceptable nowadays were used by many people in Austria. You must understand that there are maybe 15 % of people in Austria and Germany who think it is a pity that Nazi Germany lost the war, more in some areas. To cut a long story short, Waldheim was elected and many people in Austria (more than the aforementioned 15 %) were happy that they had not given in to "Jewish pressure".

That was one of the earliest reasons I had been ashamed of my home country before... As a matter of fact, I was one of those who put an "I did not vote for him!" sticker on my then scooter...
 
Kurt Waldheim, that's a name I haven't heard in a while! It was one of those people they talked about in the news programmes during my childhood years.
 
Indian Summer said:
Kurt Waldheim
Click to expand...
He is on the Voyager spacecraft records - yes, to boldly go where no Nazi has gone before!
Voyager Golden Record - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Look out! Here we go again - Court overturns Austria presidential poll result
Court overturns Austria presidential poll result - BBC News
Austria's highest court has annulled last month's presidential election narrowly lost by the right-wing candidate of the Freedom Party.

The party had challenged the result, saying that postal votes had been improperly handled.

The Freedom Party candidate, Norbert Hofer, lost the election to the former leader of the Greens, Alexander Van der Bellen, by less than a percentage point.

The election will now be re-run. :fp:
 
I just heard about this, apparently the postal vote was improperly handled.:rolleyes:
 

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