Even if the ÖVP has a good chance of being part of the next government, the party is facing a dilemma. A comment from Christian Deutschländer.
Heartfelt condolences on the government’s mandate: In Austria, the long-term ruling ÖVP is allowed to remain in power, but will only bring a coalition together by hanging and, above all, strangling. Neither option is tempting. On the right is the FPÖ, which has been led so far to the margins by agitator, anti-European and Russian-sycophantic Kickl that it is now more radical than Meloni, Le Pen and even parts of the AfD. On the left, an SPÖ, which its boss Andreas Babler (“I am a Marxist”) controls in ideology and dream dancing, just as anti-EU as Kickl. Well, hello.
Dilemma for the ÖVP after the Austrian election – the middle has dried up
The ÖVP is thus experiencing a dilemma like the CDU and SPD regional associations in East Germany BSW and AfD. She partly put herself in this situation with the upheavals surrounding her young ex-Chancellor Kurz. With his failure he disappointed the greatest hopes, more charisma than integrity. Successor Nehammer, for whom things are the other way around, has been picking up the pieces ever since. He did a lot right and pushed through a bourgeois course in security and migration policy despite the black-green coalition. But it won’t really be rewarded on this election evening. The middle is parched.
If things go well, the Federal President (powerful in Vienna) will now prevent radical, anti-EU excesses. Alexander Van der Bellen, a highly serious pro-European, now has the burden of responsibility for who he appoints as minister and who he doesn’t.
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