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Austria's conservative shift opens path to power for far right

By Francois Murphy and Michael Shields

 

Top candidate of the People's Party (OeVP) Sebastian Kurz attends his party's victory celebration meeting in Vienna, Austria, October 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dominic Ebenbichler

 

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's shift to the right in a parliamentary election has paved the way for young conservative star Sebastian Kurz to become the next leader and opened a path for the resurgent far right to return to power.

 

The People's Party, which named 31-year-old Foreign Minister Kurz its leader only in May, secured a clear victory on Sunday with a hard line on immigration that left little space between it and the anti-Islam Freedom Party (FPO).

 

But Kurz was still well short of a majority and only two other parties won enough seats to give him control of parliament in a coalition. An alliance with the FPO is far from certain, but it is the most likely outcome.

 

That prospect prompted guarded expressions of concern from European leaders including Germany's Angela Merkel, who said the FPO's strong showing was a "big challenge" for other parties in Austria.

 

Kurz has been careful to avoid saying which coalition partner he might favour. He has said any partner must be pro-European, without saying whether that rules out the FPO, which is critical of the bloc but no longer argues against membership.

 

"The (election) result is above all a clear victory for the European Union, it is a clear victory for us as a pro-European force," Kurz told Reuters.

 

His party's manifesto calls for a smaller European Commission and a streamlined EU that focuses on "core competences" such as internal trade and securing the bloc's external borders. But he declined to be drawn on specific plans.

 

Austria was a gateway into Germany for more than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and elsewhere during Europe's migration crisis which began in 2015.

 

It also took in more than one percent of its population in asylum seekers that year. Many voters feel the country was overrun then.

 

Austria's shift to the right came after German voters last month punished Merkel's open-door policy for migrants, pushing her conservative bloc to its worst showing since 1949 and putting the far-right AfD party in parliament.

 

The FPO was founded by former Nazis in the 1950s and went from minnow to political heavyweight in the 1990s under the charismatic Joerg Haider, who praised Hitler's employment policies. It was one of the first far-right parties to enjoy mainstream success in Europe since World War Two.

 

When the FPO went into government in 2000 with the conservative party Kurz now leads, the rest of the European Union reacted with outrage and imposed sanctions on Austria .

 

The FPO is now a sister to France's National Front and the AfD.

 

POLISHED

 

Though on course to be one of the world's youngest leaders, Kurz is a relative veteran in government. He entered cabinet as a secretary of state for integration six years ago and has been foreign minister for the past three.

 

He made immigration his core issue, arguing against his own coalition government's decision to throw open Austria's borders in lock step with Merkel's Germany during the migration crisis. That helped cement his reputation as a polished straight talker and make him the country's most popular politician.

 

Kurz called an end to a coalition with the Social Democrats, prompting Sunday's election, and the two sides are at loggerheads, making a tie-up with the FPO more likely.

 

The race between the FPO and Chancellor Christian Kern's Social Democrats was too close to call after Sunday's count, leaving it to postal ballots -- roughly a sixth of all votes cast -- to tell them apart.

 

The bulk of those ballots were expected to be counted on Monday. The FPO was ahead on Sunday but pollsters' projections showed postal ballots swinging the vote against it, as they did in last year's close-fought presidential election.

 

With most postal votes counted, the Social Democrats had taken the lead and were ahead by 2,540 votes, with both parties on 26.6 percent, Interior Ministry data showed on Monday night.

 

"We are not yet in the phase of coalition talks," said Kurz, adding that he would await Thursday's final result.

 

If the FPO had came second, it would have improved its odds of going into government with Kurz, since the Social Democrats would only consider a 'coalition of losers' with the FPO if the far-right party were the junior partner.

 

In June the Social Democrats lifted a self-imposed ban on coalitions with the FPO that had been in place for 30 years, implicitly recognising the difficulty of forming governments without a party on course to secure more than 26 percent of Sunday's votes.

 

After decades in parliament, the Freedom Party has sought to become increasingly mainstream, purging its ranks of overt anti-Semitism and even openly courting Jewish voters, with limited success.

 

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder, who was the U.S. ambassador to Austria from 1986 to 1987, called for the FPO to be kept out of government.

 

"It is sad and distressing that such a platform should receive more than a quarter of the vote," Lauder said in a statement.

Austria election: http://tmsnrt.rs/2hKIi65

 

(Additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla in Vienna, Thorsten Severin in Berlin, and Robin Emmott and Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-10-17

[BuaBS]

Hopefully the first of many . Again ofcourse , it isn't "the far right" , they are nationalists who want the best for their country and their native citizens.

[Jingthing]

15 minutes ago, BuaBS said:

Hopefully the first of many . Again ofcourse , it isn't "the far right" , they are nationalists who want the best for their country and their native citizens.

Nah. It kind of is far right.

Rather ironically, Kurz  kind of looks like a goyische version of Jared Kushner. 

Edited October 17, 2017 by Jingthing

[ujayujay]

1 hour ago, BuaBS said:

Hopefully the first of many . Again ofcourse , it isn't "the far right" , they are nationalists who want the best for their country and their native citizens.

Hitler wanted this too. And with the old Nazi HC Strache in charge, do you think Kurz will have any chance to realize his relatively moderate Agenda. Dream on.

[tigermoth]

The whole world should be worried. How long will it be before we see immigrants to the country being deported or put in camps and when they become too many to accomodate the clouds of black smoke start rising again.

[tryasimight]

On 10/17/2017 at 5:35 PM, Jingthing said:

Nah. It kind of is far right.

Rather ironically, Kurz  kind of looks like a goyische version of Jared Kushner. 

And I thought English was the only acceptable language on TVF!

[Grouse]

7 hours ago, tigermoth said:

The whole world should be worried. How long will it be before we see immigrants to the country being deported or put in camps and when they become too many to accomodate the clouds of black smoke start rising again.

Who the F would think that funny?

 

Now that's worrying. Look I'm anti Muslim but no need for that low rent mob backlash

[Jingthing]

1 hour ago, tryasimight said:

And I thought English was the only acceptable language on TVF!

I think it's OK to spice things up with an occasional foreign word. Also many Yiddish words have been absorbed into. American English. Such as schmuck. 

 

Also given the Germanic related nature of this topic and how heavily influenced Yiddish is by German I think quite a good fit here. 

Edited October 18, 2017 by Jingthing

[tryasimight]

Yes I have heard that schmuck word before and understand the meaning.....but 'goyische'.....what on earth does that mean?

[Jingthing]

42 minutes ago, tryasimight said:

Yes I have heard that schmuck word before and understand the meaning.....but 'goyische'.....what on earth does that mean?

Same as goy. Means non Jewish, generally Christian in its cultural context. It seems people that know who Kushner is could have picked that up by the context. 

[tryasimight]

20 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Same as goy. Means non Jewish, generally Christian in its cultural context. It seems people that know who Kushner is could have picked that up by the context. 

Ah...I see....a veiled racist/religionist slur.....I expected better from you JT!

 

I though it might have been gayerish....but misspelled!!

[tryasimight]

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

I think it's OK to spice things up with an occasional foreign word. Also many Yiddish words have been absorbed into. American English. Such as schmuck. 

 

Also given the Germanic related nature of this topic and how heavily influenced Yiddish is by German I think quite a good fit here. 

Well they were certainly influenced a few years back!!

 

And for all the Mister Serious Heads on here.....that was a joke..ok?

Edited October 18, 2017 by tryasimight

[janclaes47]

Yes far right is increasing in Europe, and actually everywhere in the Western world today.

 

I notice that there are several posters on this forum, always the few same actually, who don't agree with that.

 

What they do forget is that those leaders were elected by the people.

 

Or do you suggest that Putin is now "arranging" every election in the Western world?

[Jingthing]

28 minutes ago, tryasimight said:

Ah...I see....a veiled racist/religionist slur.....I expected better from you JT!

 

I though it might have been gayerish....but misspelled!!

Just descriptive. Be offended if you want. I suppose it's similar to farang. Can be neutral or a slur depending on context. 

[Jingthing]

21 minutes ago, janclaes47 said:

Yes far right is increasing in Europe, and actually everywhere in the Western world today.

 

I notice that there are several posters on this forum, always the few same actually, who don't agree with that.

 

What they do forget is that those leaders were elected by the people.

 

Or do you suggest that Putin is now "arranging" every election in the Western world?

Putin has been involved in many elections. Good to bring up the possibility. But his grand slam was in the USA. 

[Jingthing]

31 minutes ago, tryasimight said:

Well they were certainly influenced a few years back!!

 

And for all the Mister Serious Heads on here.....that was a joke..ok?

I was speaking of the Yiddish language.. It's very similar to the German language which is spoken in Austria. Along with Arabic of course. 

[tryasimight]

Just now, Jingthing said:

I was speaking of the Yiddish language.. It's very similar to the German language which is spoken in Austria. Along with Arabic of course. 

I guess a lot of Arabic will be spoken in Germany after the events of the last couple of years!!

[Jingthing]

Wunderbar. 

[tryasimight]

7 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Just descriptive. Be offended if you want. I suppose it's similar to farang. Can be neutral or a slur depending on context. 

No mate.....just having a bit of fun...not much offends me!