It’s astonishing. Years ago a paradigm-shift in Austrian politics happened. The far-right became part of the Austrian government in 1999. This shift was accompanied by a sanctions imposed on austria thru the member-states of the European Union. And now the far-right is going to split a second time. It seems as if there is a hidden agenda at work - early elections. But hold on a sec.
Since the new government is in place lots of reforms were started most of them were rejected by the High Court (PDF) and in any case by all those who were the targetgroups etc. The most prominent though very silent role of the leader was filled by Wolfgang Schüssel, the chancellor. He managed to get the FPÖ in the government by bluffing the SPÖ. Thus while he and the ÖVP came in only third in the election he started to change Austrian administration for better or worse - I don’t want to get into that here.
Schüssel’s partner - the FPÖ - lost almost everything since the entered the government. Not only did they have to face considerable losses in every election afterwards that pushed them from the second postion to the fourth they lost their shape and skeleton alltogether. They split in Knittelfeld and now again another organizational turmoil
It seems as if Schüssel’s hidden agenda was to demolish his partner. This will be his biggest success I suppose. There is just one aspect that should not be forgotten. Those that voted for the far-right are joinig the social-democrats again making them a stronger competitior for the next elections for the national assembly - in fact they seem to have more votes than the ÖVP rigth now.
Having all that in mind I think there is no alternative to an ÖVP led coalition with the Green Party (Die Grünen). Except if the SPÖ will gain more than 50%.
Do we face the last austro-liberal (black-greeen checkered) uprising before the next political rebound.
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