Saturday, September 28, 2024, 09:03
The extreme right is also advancing and has government options in Austria. Although its advantage has been cut in the latest polls and there are doubts about their reliability, everyone indicates that the right-wing populist Austrian Liberal Party (FPOE) will be the most voted force in some polls this Sunday and for the first time in history. legislative elections in the alpine republic. Led by its president, the incendiary Herbert Kickl, the FPOE aspires to make its debut at the head of the Austrian government and to impose from the executive a restrictive policy of maximum limits with immigration, as well as anti-Islamist, Russophile, Euro-critical and climate change denier.
The last two polls carried out before the elections indicate that the FPOE will obtain between 26% and 27% of votes, while they award in unison to the conservatives of the Austrian People’s Party (OEVP) 25% of the votes, to the Social Democratic Party (SPOE ) 21%, 12% to the NEOS liberals and 8% to the Greens. However, there are two small formations that, although they seem to be left out of the parliament in Vienna as both are around 3% of votes, it is not ruled out that they will gain deputies and appreciably alter the distribution of seats. The electoral barrier to overcome in Austria to obtain parliamentary representation is 4% of votes.
On the one hand, it is the Beer Party, the “Bierpartei”, chaired by the singer Dominik Wlazny, leader of the punk-rock band “Turbobier”, which defends an open society, social justice and equal opportunities, to promote education, environmental protection and international cooperation on the basis of respect, tolerance and progress. And on the other, the reborn and rejuvenated Austrian Communist Party (KPOE), which has held the mayoralty of Graz since 2021, the country’s second city, and was close to achieving that of Salzburg last year. His return to the Austrian lower house for the first time since 1959 would be a milestone.
Although the polls proclaim a victory for the Liberal Party, Kickl is unlikely to become federal chancellor. The conservatives are the only party that has shown willingness to form a government alliance with the FPOE, but the president of the OEVP and current head of the government of the Alpine republic in coalition with the greens, Karl Nehammer, has made it clear in advance that will never collaborate with a government chaired by Kickl. It is also doubtful that the Austrian federal president, Alexander van der Bellen, will commission the FPOE to form a new executive if they win the elections. The head of state has the power to give that privilege to the second classified, which would benefit Nehammer, who also hopes that his party, against all odds, will once again be the most voted.
In any case, the presence of the extreme right in a federal government is not new in Austria. Between 2000 and 2005, when the FPOE was led by the charismatic Jörg Haider, the populists were the junior partner in the executive led by the conservative Wolfgang Schüssel. This alliance then led to the isolation of Austria within the European Union, at that time with 15 members. Fearing that the xenophobic policy of the liberals would influence the government of their country, the remaining 14 partners agreed to reduce the bloc’s and bilateral relations with the Alpine republic to a minimum. It was the only time in history that the EU “sanctioned” a partner.
It is not safe for them to govern
More recent was the alliance formed between the OEVP and the FPOE from 2017 to 2019 under the government of the young federal chancellor Sebastian Kurz and with the far-right Hans Christian Strache as number two in the executive. A coalition that lasted only a year and a half and that collapsed due to the so-called “Ibiza Scandal.” A scandal that had its origin in the publication of a video filmed with a hidden camera in a villa on the Spanish island in which Strache was seen and heard as he allowed himself to be corrupted by an alleged Russian oligarch, to whom he offered privileges in Austria in exchange. of money. The scene, which turned out to be a trap for the vice-chancellor, led to the breakup of the coalition, the end of Strache’s political career and an acute crisis within the FPOE.
In the early general elections held in September 2019, the Austrian far-right, until then on the rise, lost 10 points and fell to 16% of votes. A downturn from which it did not begin to recover until the coronavirus pandemic, in which liberals systematically criticized the government’s restrictions, winning over the dissatisfied. A moment that also coincided with the election of Kickl as president of the party in 2021. Since then the FPOE has recovered ground very quickly and, meanwhile, is a coalition partner of the conservatives in the governments of the federal states of Upper Austria , Lower Austria and Salzburg.
At the European level, Kickl and his party have aligned themselves with formations of similar ideology. On June 30 and after the European elections to the Strasbourg parliament, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, his Czech colleague, Andrej Babis, and the Austrian Hebert Kickl announced the creation of a new group in that chamber to form “the most strong alliance with a right-wing orientation”, an alliance called “Patriots for Europe” that defends the national sovereignty of the EU member countries, the fight against illegal migration and the review of the so-called “Green Deal”, that is, the agreement to reduce polluting emissions and avoid climate change, which the Austro-Czech-Hungarian trio considers a threat to the continental economy and “political poison,” according to Orbán at the joint press conference.
The FPOE and Kickl have spent the campaign stating that their goal is to fight “the system”, including the “system parties” and the “system media” or, in the words of their leader, to “orbanize” Austria along the lines practiced in his country by the Hungarian Prime Minister. His critics point out that this means ending liberal democracy, limiting press freedom and abolishing the right to asylum. Even if they win the elections, it is not at all certain that they will govern. The Conservatives’ warning that they will never support a government with Kickl as federal chancellor reduces the chances of an agreement. And if in the end the extreme right is left out of negotiations, it will not be easy to agree on a new executive either. An agreement between three parties would be necessary to have a sufficient parliamentary majority. The one most considered by Austrian analysts would be one of conservatives, social democrats and liberals.
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