this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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Austria’s main parties are preparing to begin tense wrangling to form a government amid warnings about the country’s democracy after the far right’s watershed victory in a general election in which angry voters punished centrist incumbents over migration and inflation.

On Sunday, the anti-Islam, Kremlin-friendly Freedom party (FPÖ) scored its strongest result since its founding after the second world war by former Nazi functionaries and SS officers with just over 29% of the vote. The outcome surpassed expectations and beat the ruling centre-right People’s party (ÖVP) by nearly three percentage points. The centre-left opposition Social Democratic party (SPÖ) turned in its worst-ever performance with 21% while the Greens, junior partners in government, sank to 8%.

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (14 children)

A short list of things the FPÖ is famous for:

The party fund scandal when then head of party H.C. Strache used 10 000€ party funds to purchase emeralds in "Clash of Clans" (I wish I made that up but I didn't).

Trying to strike a deal with a "Russian Oligarch" to purchase Austrias biggest news outlet "Krone" and turn it into a FPÖ propaganda machine. The "Russian Oligarch" was a bait and high ranking FPÖ politicians (like the mentioned H.C. Strache) had to explain themselves and said they were "having drunk fantasies". It caused the then ÖVP-FPÖ government to collapse.

A song containing the lyrics "Let's go! (which can also mean Release gas! - I wanted to mention that since it gets lost in translation) We'll make it 7 million!". Then minister of inner affairs Herbert Kickl (who ~~is now likely to~~ could become chancellor) reacted not by criticism towards his party, but by criticism towards the "Verfassungsschutz" (Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution) who, according to him, leaked the song. He then ordered a normal police unit, that was meant to arrest drug dealers and gang members, to raid the Verfassungsschutz and they took any evidence for far right extremism linked to the FPÖ.

Now head of party Herbert Kickl is also known for:

Calling the neo nazi group "Identitäre Bewegung" a "project worth supporting".

Claiming that horse deworming medication could treat covid.

Refering to himself as "Volkskanzler" a title also used by Adolf Hitler.

Saying that "politics should be above the law and that the law should not be above politics"

Having friends that donated money to the Christchurch mass killer and that really wanted to "meet him and drink a coffee if he visits Vienna one day".

I bet I have forgotten a lot of shit that has been going on. Let's just say the last few years have been a wild ride in Austrian politics.

Edit: as has been pointed out, Herbert Kickl is not a likely but possible option for chancellor since the ÖVP could form a coalition with the SPÖ and keep Nehammer as chancellor. It was bad wording from my side, I apologize >~<

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Saw "Nazi" graffitied on this guy's face in Vienna last week and was wondering whether that was an exaggeration. Seems not, unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Yeah. Too bad the other parties weren't doing better but there are various reasons:

The people's party ÖVP is still suffering from their former-former head of party Sebastian Kurz who was extremely popular and the Austrian chancellor for quite a while but who had to resign after a series of corruption charges. The ÖVP then quickly appointed Alexander Schallenberg as their new head and as chancellor but it was clear from the beginning, that he was a puppet. He then had to resign after a meeting in Brussels where "Schallenberg" wanted to tweet something like "So happy to be meeting with (Von der Leyen I think) in Brussels..." but they posted it not on Schallenberg's twitter account but accidentally on Kurz' twitter which made it even more clear that Schallenberg was nothing but a puppet. Austria then had a new chancellor AGAIN roughly two weeks after Kurz resigned and is officially led by Karl Nehammer since then. But let's just say the ÖVP's reputation has been pretty miserable ever since Kurz left. Even worse they tried to steal voters from the FPÖ by radicalising to the right, legitimising a lot of FPÖ positions.

As for the social democratic SPÖ, it is divided between progressive democratic socialist and current head of party Andreas Babler and conservative social democrat Hans Peter Doskozil. They had been holding a vote for their head of party and it looked like Doskozil had won but they then admitted there had been an issue with an Excel sheet they used to count the votes and that Babler won the vote... In any case it made the SPÖ look like stupid amateurs. Like imagine Bernie Sanders & Joe Biden (but both quite a bit younger) constantly dissing themselves and you get the mess that is the SPÖ.

Edit: I corrected "Kurt Nehammer" to "Karl Nehammer"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Just one errata: his name is Karl Nehammer, but everything else is correct (sadly)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How tf did I get that one wrong. Must have been me writing Kurz one time to much and getting a stroke :')

Thanks for reading my stuff so carefully :3

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Thank you for writing such a great summary! :)

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