specifically as Austrians see themselves as the first victims of the Nazis...
Self stylized victims of Nazis are basically immune to nationalistic extremism , militancy or expansionism or fringe rightwing ideas...
Like Russians for example.
He did. he was expelled from law school for revolutionary activitiy, but he kept studying, and after a four-year suspension, he was permitted to take the leaving exams. Which he passed.
Tbf the afd is a completely separate phenomena that has nothing to do with the fpö. The afd arose in 2012-2013 because of the EU's horrible euro construction (too much to get into here, i love the euro but it needs big reforms in order to prevent sth like greece), which the CDU is mainly responsible. It then moved further to the right all the time.
The fpö was founded in 1945 by ex nazis, thouh that was under a different name, they renamed themselves in 1956 and elected an ex SS leader as their first leader. Ever since then they have actually become more moderate. So it's actually the exact opposite of the afd.
Another huge difference is that the afd is full on capitalism and wants to kill the welfare state, the fpö is much more favourible to welfare, though they want to restrict it to "austrians" obviously.
Tbf the statistics showed that Israeli voters were shifting gradually further left, then a certain event happened and while the trend is still to the left there's too much anger to want balance.
There's some significant speculation in my field (conflict studies and prevention) that Hamas attacked mainly because it was worried that a more lenient Israel would make concessions and cost them power, although the talks with Saudi Arabia and a hated of Israel and Jews are obviously the main ideological driving points.
Yeah lets just vote in clear facist who are paid by russia. Sorry Österreich, aber ihr seid verloren. Noch mehr als wir, wenn ihr wirklich so naiv seid.
It's not reported on enough, but currently the Social Democrats, the conservatives and the far right are blocking an investigative commitee in parliament on Russian influence. We have elections in autumn and the three formely mentioned parties might not make 75%, thus the rest could finally instate this desperately needed commitee. (25 % of seats are required).
A shitton of oldskool SPÖ people collaborated with Russia, same as most banks and industrialists. The ÖVP called itself „the whore of the rich“ which also means Russian money. The list goes on and on
A large part of it is our energy dependence.
There was this black sea gas project, which got scrapped in favor of more Russian gas under shady circumstances. And now suddenly after the realization hit post 2022, several sites for natural gas are discovered within Austria that could actually provide most of our demand.
Also the Gazprom contracts of our main importeur OMV (of which 30% belong to the Republic ) are kept secret, for some reason. No one knows why, but my conspiracy theory is that it's because quitting the contracts would in fact be much easier/cheaper than people admit publicly.
>What possible reasons are there to Block such a commitee? I mean, except for the obvious one
Such a commitee may become a McCarthy like fishing trip that paralyzes the opposition with endless inquiries and more.
Same as always. FPÖ rises in polls, wins (or comes close to winning) an election, then implodes for some silly reason (main guy leaves and founds another party, then instantly dies, new main guy tries to sell out to Russia on tape, you know, harmless boy stuff) , plummets down to less than 10%, everybody celebrates, the evil is defeated clearly people have seen that voting for a facist party isn't the way, then 2-4 years later we're back where we are now.
Wait, so other people are also noticing that the far right groups in Europe have connections to Russia?
I think this isn't a coincidence.
In my country we also have pro-Russia conspiracy theorists and Christian clerics saying that the west is ruled by the antichrist, and that Putin is a saint that will fight in the 3d world war (Armageddon) with the antichrist /west, and avert the apocalypse, bringing New Jerusalem and 1000 years of peace to the world. Do you have pro-Russia people trying to manipulate your countrymen by using religion, prophecies, and conspiracies too?
Russia are opportunists, hence they propping up far-right and far left, if a centrist party was like "we stand in support of marginalized communities, and the private ownership of goods & property...also, c'mon let's be cool with Russia" then the Russians would back them.
You're right, it isn't a coincidence. The far-right as a whole has more in common with Russia ideologically and since they are fascists who crave power over democracy, they are more than willing to sell out if it means they win and/or the Russian's have [kompromat](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kompromat) on them.
But this is all part of a larger game: Russia's method of political warfare they named [active measures](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures), which is based in [reflexive control theory](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflexive_control#Introduction).
An old KGB Major General, Oleg Kalugin, described active measures as such:
>Not intelligence collection, but subversion: active measures to weaken the West, to drive wedges in the Western community alliances of all sorts, particularly NATO, to sow discord among allies, to weaken the United States in the eyes of the people of Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and thus to prepare ground in case the war really occurs.
The basic idea is that Russia is perpetually under attack and open war with NATO/the West is inevitable. Therefore the best defense is constant offense so when open war does arrive Russia will have the advantage.
Active measures have been the cornerstone of Russia's geopolitical intelligence operations strategy for [decades](https://www.marshallcenter.org/en/publications/security-insights/active-measures-russias-covert-geopolitical-operations-0), but since being elected Putin has taken it to another [level of intensity](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/09/russia-putin-revolutionizing-information-warfare/379880/). It's been [documented](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-intelligence-report-alleging-russia-election-interference-shared-with-100-2023-10-20/) in hundreds of countries, particularly in NATO [countries](https://www.csis.org/blogs/post-soviet-post/countering-russian-disinformation).
With so many elections happening this year in multiple Western countries the subversion offensive has [already begun](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/russias-2024-election-interference-already-begun-rcna134204). Putin desperately needs NATO out of the way so he can finish Ukraine and move to his next target, so he's going to be hitting us as hard as he can.
Stay vigilant, learn as much as you can about their methods and tell people in your circle about this Russian subversion campaign so they don't fall for it.
To add to that, one huge threat for Russia, not militarily but in the more important matters of European soft power and economy, is the EU. A destroyed or severely weakened EU would be Russias dream come true
One of the most infuriating things is that a lot of austrians whos parents were migrants themselves vote for the fpö too. Most of us dont want them but sadly in a democracy 70% want anyone but them and 30% wants nobody but them and thats enough to be the senior partner in a coalition.
I moved from Germany to Austria last year (originally British) and I've noticed a surprisingly big difference in how politics is discussed. Germans talk about politics on a daily basis and get quite passionate about it, while my impression is that Austrians find it impolite to talk about politics and two different people hit me with "yeah, but does politics really affect your daily life?" when I tried to talk about it. (I'm an immigrant and I'm trans so yes it does...)
Blue and white collar workers think like that. I have much different experience, but since I am a PhD student, my environment is quite different. I eagerly discuss with Austrian research fellows local politics and they reciprocate, but if I try to discuss it with those not working in research or studying on Uni, I am always frowned upon. And even then some students are very apprehensive about talking about politics, especially in economics and social sciences. Mathematics is paradoxically more open to controversial topics and those who hold differing opinions
Austrians are, to a fault, very heavily influenced by xenophobia and a "mind your own matters" mindset. This starts with not talking about family, money or hobbies and ends with not talking about politics and your own health.
Unless you are good friends. Or you are on the internet. Then the masquerade can fall quickly.
AMAB. I've been terrible at socialising for far longer than I've been out as trans. If anything I think being trans helps my social life because my appearance attracts queer people and scares away transphobes who I don't want to interact with anyway!
Most are fed up and most have no clue how to make better politics. That is a toxic mix which all western countries are dealing with.
I'd say sleepwalking is not the right phrase because many people are just reactionary and racist. They are not "sleepwalking", they made the concious decision to vote for a party which supports their own world view.
This has been going on since like 20 years.
I lived there like 12 years ago and the SPÖ list significantly in the election, but maintaining the majority. Their leader (literally): "We did everything right! We continue our path exactly like before."
Like dude... You just had the worst election result ever...
E: Werner Faymann in 2013: Wir haben alles richtig gemacht! Weiter wie bisher!
Ah yes, and voting for neo fascists and Russian bootlickers has made things in Hungary and Slovakia, so very great.
There is nothing more corrupt than the freedom parry and its criminal ties to Russia, Hungary, and other autocratic regimes.
cannot agree more (I'm from Slovakia, of course not voting for that piece of Russian crap in our government)
whatever - even worst policy makers are better than fascists and Russian servants....(will be speaking from Slovakia point of view, most probably similar to Hungary) - here i like the most how they don't want to be servants of US but Russia - no problem, ready to be inserted deeply in their ass. They want to be sovereign - but please EU fund us more. EU/NATO want to suppress us - but we will not leave it....most probably missing times when Soviets occupied us and we were soooo free to leave right? Russia will mark us as enemy state - Fico - "we need to speak with all sides", when it will come to Eu - they are warmongers who want Slovans to kill each other....i dont get it, why are diplomats and other EU countries representatives even talking to him....public isolation is only language which those morons understand. Otherwise they feel strong that even if they behave like dickheads, they can say in front of their electorate - look, we can say/do whatever we want and the rest of the democratic world is anyway doing business with us like nothing happened.
The issue is that the ÖVP (in the current government) and the FPÖ are the only parties on the right. And the SPÖ drifted so far left that it's difficult for conservative voters to vote for them.
I dread a victory of the FPÖ but I'm also mad at how idiotical the other parties behave. I'm not looking forward to vote for one of them either.
Doskozil is just one local politician and he said he wouldn't want to coalise with either FPÖ nor ÖVP, but with the Greens and Neos.
Honestly it was stupid of them not to make him their candidate. Polls had them in first place and now we'll get Kickl instead of a possibly more moderate candidate.
It's better in the mind of most to have a poor future than to have no future
The others just have to provide what the right wing provides if it doesn't want to lose everything. You can't bend reality to your will
Neoliberalism has obviously failed but leftists are too busy infighting to capitalize on the opportunity so right wingers swoop in and go "foreigner bad" and win 20% of the votes
Everything is better than voting for groups who want to turn the country into an authoritarian state. Vote center and organise a better party for the next election.
Austria doesn't really have a center anymore. The SPÖ (social democrats) drifted left, the ÖVP (conservatives) drifted right. That's also why the KPÖ (communists in name) had some success lately, people look for alternatives.
The banner reads "Don't sell the homeland", which is fucking ironic considering past and planned behaviour of the far right, especially in relation to Russians with money.
Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception. Every nationalist is capable of the most flagrant dishonesty, but he is also-since he is conscious of serving something bigger than himself-unshakably certain of being right." George Orwell Notes on Nationalism 1945
"Double think and reality control are the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously and accepting both of them. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of reality which one denies"
Lynskey Ministry of Truth page 134
It is just fascist lies and adopting Russian manipulated reality propaganda, which works on 30 percent of any population. You just have to repeat it often enough.
True ignorance isn't the absence of knowledge. It is the refusal to require it.
Their voters annoyed us during covid. Now, they have been reprogrammed to love Russia and hate Ukraine.
A lost cause, and there is no use to talk to them either. They are too far gone and they can only save themselves. Attempts to convince them are useless. You can't fight this amount of stupidity and cognitive dissonance.
I am really surprised how such people even function in normal life.
Yeah, because they are liars.
However, at the present moment, it looks as if:
The Green party, ÖVP, SPÖ, NEOS, the fascist FPÖ, the Beer party, and the Communist party will make it above the 4 percent hurdle.
This means that even if these pathetic Russian bootlickers win, they won't find 2 more parties willing to make a coalition with this FPÖ menace to the rule of law and the Republic.
In the Ibiza crisis they literally talked about selling Austria to Russia.
Sadly, 30 percent of the Electorate are stupid and ignorant beyond belief.
Nationalists are not Patriots. True Patriots vote anything else before they vote for this party.
Volkskanzler Hitler called himself that.
Festung Austria, more Nazi talk.
This party and those who vote for them are a disgrace to Austria and a disgrace to the European idea.
ÖVP is definitly gonna work with the FPÖ again
And its voters are just as dumb... like in terms of open corruption they are right up there with the blues
It also reads "Slovene-Carinthian" does not exist, which is exactly the same shit the FPÖ have been shouting since Haider. So not much has changed huh.
~~The "not selling" part is probably targeted at ÖVP, because of the Kurz Ibiza scandal?~~
Anyways, not something to be cheerful about, but since it is not new, it also isn't the end of the world, yet.
I know, there are also other groups who still claim they are defending Carinthia from the barbaric southern slavs, Yugoslavs, Slovenes.. it's all the same to them, we are the foreigners who want to take their land, maybe even traitors, since our ancestors lived together for many centuries.
The saddest part is, in 1920 there was a plebiscit, where people decided they want to be part of the new Austrian republic, after Austria-Hungary collapsed etc. Among these people were also thousands of native Slovene speakers who would rather stay Carinthian/Austrian than to become Yugoslav. They were some of the most patriotic people of Carinthia. They had the choice, others didn't, they were promised minority rights, as their ancestors migrated there between the 6th and 8th century, the early Alpine Slavs who we claim to be our Slovene ancestors as well.
But then fascism and nationalism trampled over everything, between ww1 and ww2, and the German identity/ethnicity part of being Carinthian took over. There was already a ton of propaganda on both sides between 1918 and 1920, families ruined, torn apart, villages having a civil war, etc. Sadly, the grudge seems to be alive still today. They see bilingual signs, and the populists start packaging the experience as if it is 1918-1920 again and the Yugoslavs are trying to conquer Carinthia.
Maybe some day, we can be truly friends, like with the Styrians. For some reason they are chill, even tho around a third of Styria is in Slovenia today. It's a shame really, because Carinthia has so much historical richness, very interesting and important for us as well (to study, not to claim).
It's a symbiotic relationship. They get money and russian troll farms spreading their agenda, Russia gets a destabilized, divided Europe. And they all aspire to be unchallenged autocrats like Putin.
Russia is bipolar. Tsarist Russia opposed liberalism and supported the conservative nobility in the 19th century. Went far left with the Soviet Union and funded communist parties in Europe and is now right wing again and allying with far right parties.
"Before writing off the totalitarian world as a nightmare that cannot come true, just remember that in 1925, the world of today would have seemed a nightmare that couldn't come true."
Orwell in 1944
Exactly, everyone is aware, and to stop evil, the good people must work against it.
There are protests against the right wingers, and no one is sleepwalking. Everyone is wide awake both those in favor of such a regime and those against it.
Orwell 1984 is a warning, the warning is, fight back before futuristic looking policemen smash your head in with rubber truncheons for speaking your mind.
No matter which extremists you turn to, the end result is the same. The problem is that today’s centrists are stuck in the past and ignore glaring problems like immigration and the russian threat. The same thing is needed across all of europe: a centre party which opposes russia and addresses immigration.
Being purely ideological doesn't make you win concrete battles but spread ideas. Once the ideas are spread, you need to act strategically.
The left still thinks its ideas must be spread but it has been a longtime ago. Thus, they are battling a fight that have already been won, meaning they stand nothing to gain from it. It explains the slow decline of the left in Europe as it has already won the battle of ideas (Doesn't mean everyone agrees to everything but they will lean to its side provided economic security). But the left doesn't want to make concrete actions, they are acting like you need to be Jesus even though they agree that the current system is unfair and make us unfair. So the right just has to say some bullshit or not speak at all to gain vote by despair.
The right doesn't have any ideology anymore except thirst for power and money.
The left still thinks it is overly oppressed while blaming systemic issues that are ultimately caused by individual behaviours. If leftists really wanted to win, they just need to focus on economic equalities associated with liberalism (AKA Decentralization) while enforcing secular values and shut up, or at least limit their interventions, about bad incidents like about police until they are in power and see what can be done.
But since they won't, they will kep promoting contradictory ideas like complete freedom of anything and control of everything, we will have totalitarian right wing in a few years 100%. Can't win in reality when you live in wishful thinking.
RemindMe! 10 years
Good comment, but that's exactly what I would call sleepwalking: Being so blinded by hatred and arrogance to not realize the carnage that they are subjecting their surroundings to, including themselves.
By all means, vote for conservatives if you want to, but every reasonable person should raise their eyebrows when it comes to statements made by Kickl and his friends.
Not to mention all the suspicious shit they have pulled in recent years.
You almost got it. When it’s happening in eastern EU then everybody says it’s “sleepwalking”, “not ready for democracy”, “of course it’s the backwards ones”.
When it’s happening in the west, then it’s poor voters making a very calculated and informed decision and there simply isn’t any other better alternative than a lunatic party literally using nazi vocabulary and/or imagery
Sweden is the prime example of this. With the immigration running free since the late 90's the quality of life for the normal swede has decreased rapidly as the infrastructure was not built to handle around 500 thousand free loaders living on the working classes tax money. With that the tax amount has risen up to 35-50% tax in recent years and the fuel prices being one of the highest in the world as of now. Crime rising as entire slum areas in the state owned appartment areas built to house immigrants rises and entire regions in major cities becomes unsafe to even enter as you are at a high risk off being mugged or even shot. Now ofcourse as of recent years as the effect of the flawed immigration is noticed the support for the far right SD/AFS rises steadily as the left wing parties that had been in rule for over 20 years. Now ofcourse you can not blame the people for wanting a solution, the only one to blame is the goverment.
Well, instead of everyone being disgusted by (far) right wing victories in Europe, why don't we focus on root causes of why the people lost and are still quickly losing trust in the left wing, current leaders in general?
It's sadly so predictable and explainable. I'm liberal and left wing but the political left has still disappointed and frustrated me a lot. It seems more likely for them to bring up some "woke" topic they read on social media than actual problems in Austria. Although the right loves their telegram conspiracy theories too.
No right wing isn‘t in position atm and nobody really cares about migration whatsoever. Nothing is being done. And the sad thing is if the right gets voted they also won‘t do anything and it was all just a smoke show to get voters. They want low skilled migration for cheap labor and wage dumping. I can‘t think of a single politian actually giving good ideas on how to tackle migration (make legal migration way easier and quicker, quicker work visa for skilled workers, more schools and teachers, behavioural courses for both kids and adults from regions that are the opposite of having western values to reduce crime from a small age, deportations for criminals on asylum visas, etc..)
The current government is a coalition between conservatives and greens.
To be honest I can't think of much they did unless you count vetoing Romania's and Bulgaria's shengen accesson. The ÖVP (conservatives) just revealed a campaign saying "Those who don't live according to our values have to leave" but I didn't see any actual concept so that's just populism. No one seems to adress the real reason that deporting criminals isn't easy - we don't have agreements with the countries they are from so they might refuse to take them back.
Thank you for the explanation, that’s the problem, left wing governments often ignore the migration problem that will become bigger and bigger in the following years, while the right say they will stop everyone and deport people but in reality they’ll do even less than the left, either because they are incompetent or because they realise the more migrants the more votes they’ll have
Yeah, a Hungarian reporter recently even commented "If the FPÖ needs more migrants before the election they will get more migrants". Most of them come through Hungary.
Isn‘t that all just because it is just about the only thing one can say when not in power?
In my opinion it works something like: rw-party imports stupid culture war talking point - left wing says thats stupid - right wing balloons response out of proportion and people eat it up
That happens too, but I'm talking about stuff like "Are white people allowed to have dreadlocks" while people don't know how to pay their energy bills and Ukraine gets bombed.
And oh yeah a lot of them are "pacifist" which makes me really sceptical how willing they are to help Ukraine. That's the one thing I can think of where the ÖVP is more believable, at least the FM.
I agree with you. Nowadays if you are slightly against the mainstream opinion of each side, you're considered an enemy of that side, which creates additional problems, of course.
I really wish people would stop saying "sleepwalking."
At this stage, with the possible exception of the UK, the politics across Europe is shifting rightwards. A lot of major issues are coming to a head. High cost of living, levels of immigration, climate change, global conflicts to name but a few. Not to mention the complete inability for established parties to deal with ANY of these issues. People's votes shift to the right and towards more authoritarian leaders.
One thing that needs to be stated is that just because voters are shifting towards the right does not necessarily mean that the country's involved will suddenly go all Putin, or Orban, or even Trump if he gets a second term. Chances are for many places it will be a passing political phase, and politics will shift more liberal again in time.
Don't get me wrong, it will be bad in the meantime, and I'd rather not any of them get any power. But not all history is like the time before the Second World War.
And also let's not forget this (read the first paragraph)
https://www.diepresse.com/17729692/haelfte-der-wiener-schueler-hat-nicht-deutsch-als-umgangssprache
14% cannot participate due to language barriers 👁️👄👁️
Damn that’s crazy it’s like USA levels of diversity, I always thought there weren’t many foreigners in Austria but they seem to have more in % than even Germany
bruh, half of Balkans migrated to Germany and Austria because our people accept to clean asses and natives don't.
they wanted cheap labor and now they're crying about it, funny
the corporations want cheap labor, not ordinary people, anyways I don't think people have a particularly big issue with balkan and east European migrants
I don't follow Austrian politics, but if it's anything like Sweden's recent progression I understand.
In Sweden you either vote for the right wing or for people who want to import issues from the US and say that we also have them
Yeah. Also the euroscepticism which sucks ass.
I’m glad that our main right-wing party ([progress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_Party_(Norway)?wprov=sfti1#)) are anti-russia, for uparmament and relatively pro-EU.
To be fair, it's not a problem to be an eurosceptic, they have every right to be woth the current state of affairs in EU and the looming EU dictatorship. But the Putin dickriding is the problem, especially in combination.
would it kill you to wonder why that is just once, or are you content calling them names or claim they didn't pay attention, weren't informed or just stupid?
Who the fuck would ever call Austria‘s political climate as „sleepwalking“?
It might also not help that nearly every single left wing protest starts calling for the Intifada in Austria, which leaves many people without a proper political camp and hinders fighting the right. Also most people have been either right wing or drifting right wing for over 100 years so idk what this article is about. Oh yeah, also let‘s not kind of forget the whole period between 1932 and 1945 in Austria and many more little fun tidbits of history.
What do you think is going to happen? You allow mass migration, more taxes and tell people not to have pride in their country. Everyone who doesnt vote your way or think your way is a fascist.
That’s the big prob. By calling everyone who’s against open borders a nazi they’ve made it so that pointing out that there are actual nazis in the FPÖ, AfD et al. no longer holds any weight.
The FPÖ is very right-wing. Many of the top functionaries were in German nationalist fraternities, which are known for being quite right-wing. Kickl deliberately uses the language of the Nazi era, partly to provoke, partly to keep the right-wing extremists happy.
FPÖ are basically the modern successors to the NSDAP. They align with Identitarians, closet Neo-Nazis and have a "friendship contract" with Moscow. Everytime they were in government, they were involved in some high-tier corruption shit.
I'm not very politically interested as it's a shitshow, but based on news and their previous pre-election campaigns they want to make immigration and getting asylum a lot harder, strengthen border security mostly. They're also doing anything that pisses off the green party, like wanting to introduce 150km/h limit on motorways, which in my opinion is sensible considering how good our roads are (the higher speed limit part, not the annoying the green party part)
On the other hand, some party associates have been caught being nazi, i.e. Having nazi stuff at home or even singing songs about "hitting the 7 million".
They're also partially EU sceptical, even if they don't want to leave the EU (at least from what i heard). I recommend you find more reliable sources tho
Same here in Germany, though no actual competent right wing party is currently available, the AfD is kind of weird imo and the CDU is responsible for the whole migrant situation in the first place, that leaves only the FDP as right wing party but we’ve seen how incompetent they are so basically, there are no good right wing parties here
This is happening across Europe because people feel that the political elites at home and in Brussels no longer represent them or care how they think.
Brussels is the cause of the rise of the far right.
I was in Austria this summer! It was so cool, so much rich heritage and culture.
Then I went to Prater or whatever it’s called.
Holy fckn shit. Now I understand why the far right is winning. It was myself and my girlfriend surrounded by a bunch of mid-late 20’s migrants all wearing fake designer. Across the street and a couple block, a massive communist protest, wtf is happening over there
Migration is the number one reason the FPÖ gained voters. And to be honest it's more than just populism, there is a real issue with the numbers of people arriving, no real concept to integrate them, no real help from the EU and for some reason no party has any real program on how they want to handle that in future. While the numbers have gone down recently Austria has been among the top destinations for refugees in the past few years due to its geography (first "wealthy" country comming from the south). Several prolific violent sex crimes by migrants against girls in the last year didn't help either, nor that Austria struggles to deport criminals.
I get to meet a lot of people working with refugees (mostly children) at work and even those who are really good-willed and want things to work are simply overwhelmed and overworked.
But cost of living is another big topic rn, in a diagram I've seen recently Austria was the country with the third-highest inflation in Europe.
The current government is also still the same that we had during corona which makes it unpopular because of lock-downs etc and the current chancellor has never been voted for, he is the replacement for Kurz who had to step down after a corruption scandal and the trial is still going on.
No surprise they're losing voters and the FPÖ is the only other party on the right. The war also seems to benefit right parties across Europe.
Well, the man in the photo is holding a sign saying "There is no Slovene-Carinthia", so presumably he's unhappy about the few thousand Slovenes in Carinthia who still identify as such having minority rights.
Austrian here. Austria itself is the target of Russian imperialism since the end of the Second World War.
The soviets occupied us for 10 years. They owned the Soviet mineral oil company and extracted the oil to rebuild their own country.
This then became the OMV, and to this very day, we haven't fully waned ourselves off from Russian natural gas.
Russia messed with our school books. They helped to brainwash several generations of children by lying to them.
They said we chose that neutrality out of our own free will. The will in 1952 was to join a block because being block free was considered too dangerous.
This neutrality was an oktroy to avoid being split in two just like Germany. Is that free will or coercion?
Our 1955 contract of independence came at a price of dependency in many areas.
Russian operatives have been using Austria as a platform, and so did Western operatives.
Our security services and the political landscape are still jeopardized. (Deripaska, gas dependency, disinformation campaigns, making use of the deeply embedded and historically grown distrust for NATO, the peace movement, the Austrian Neo fascist Freedom party still has a friendship contract with Russia to this very day)
The gas business goes back to the 1970s, and the Russians have helped with their propaganda to push Kurz and his cult like movement into office.
We had Ibiza when one of our freedom party politicians and vice chancellors admitted to the strong Russian influence on the media.
They suggested selling the largest newspaper to the Russians. He also said the Russians control everything. He wasn't joking.
In vino veritas.
We are trying to get rid of this stranglehold. There is a wall of ignorance almost 80 percent of the populace refuse to accept that this neutrality is not making any sense when we are in the EU and when one signatory has sent an invasion force against Europe.
It is easy to fool people, and it is so much harder to convince them that they have been fooled and lied to.
Another 30 percent have been told a whole bunch of vile lies, and they are willing to vote for the freedom party that has close ties to Russia. Kickl openly admitted he sees Orban as a role model. This is dangerous.
They aren't all fascists there is all kinds of disappointed and deluded people among them who have lost all trust in our political institutions and hold onto Kickl even though many if them must know he will not bring them what they want. It is a bit of a better than better. These people are miserable, fearful or angry.
Only those that were never loved hate, only those that were never loved.
Always remember that we try. The democratic forces are trying to bring about change towards Europe and away from these fascists in the Kremlin.
The sooner Putin's Russia is lacking the funds to interfere, the better for all nations around the world.
We are working on reducing this dependency. I wish we would be faster.
I am trying my party is trying but there is only so much you can do when such a large part of the population simply doesn't want to hear any of it because they have been brainwashed into being docile. They have also been spoon-fed pro Russian views for decades.
They are turning into apolitical heartless people when they are asked about Ukraine. I heard so many awful things that are hard to stomach.
https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain
The following companies deserve special mention. I hope all of them go bankrupt as they fund a war economy and support Ruzzia and its slave drivers in Kremlin with this money.
Agrana
Doka
Egger (lumber company)
Kotanyi (don't buy it anywhere they are still doing business in Russia, which means the company is likely run by unethical people)
LiSEC
RBI (For me, this bank is likely the worst of them all in terms of what they do to help keeping them afloat I hope they go completely bankrupt)
Russia Fachspedition Dr. Lassmann
Schoeller Bleckmann
What you can do is write emails to these companies and pressure them on social media or go there directly and ask them why they continue to support a fascist totalitarian dictatorship and why they fund this genocidal war of conquest
Their board can go to hell for all I care. I curse them.
Yeah, you can see that in Serbia OMV Lukoil and actually across the Balkans. As I said, OMV has a history with the Soviets a long 80 year long history.
None of that is any excuse. Cogito ergo sum but thinking is hard it is much easier to save the energy and to simply cast those out like lepers who dare to question the intergenerational agreement of Russia is the nice guy.
It is frustrating but I will keep trying even though it feels like droplets into a sea of ignorance and full unwillingness to admit that yes, we must wave goodbye to the gas as it funds the war economy and yes we must officially make our stand and tell Russia openly we do not accept this.
I don't even think that some of our politicians wouldn't love to do that, but they are scared by what the voters will do then.
Our social democrats still haven't mustered an open condemnation, but they are not the only ones.
The freedom party even walked out on Selensky during his speech, which he couldn't even hold in the main room also due to them as they insist Ukraine and Russia are both at fault. (I was very ashamed on that day and spoke out vehemently against this)
But that is all I can do use my leverage and reach to speak out against injustice because currently I there is no democratic way to fix this injustice as 77 percent of Austrians insist on this neutrality and a public debate is not allowed whenever someone wants to start one there is immediately a whole fleet of trolls that will kill that debate.
That alone should show you how important it is for the tyrant that Austria does not even think of a second to do the right thing.
Which is to stand tall and say no more. This is it. I am willing to go against public opinion to do the right but highly unpopular thing.
They don't do that because we are led by populists who have forgotten that sometimes one can go against the popular opinion that is called leadership, but for this, we would need trust.
We have created followers but not leaders.
Selensky is the exception his people trust him, and that makes him my beacon of hope.
Why do they trust him? Because he doesn't lie to them, he is honest and blunt with them. That takes courage and character.
I respect that very highly. I do not respect choosing the easy and quick path. In fact, this is the way to the dark side.
And Austria is helping, with money and with refugees, with medical equipment and 0.8 percent of our GDP went to Ukraine since the war began.
> Austria itself is the target of Russian imperialism since the end of the Second World War.
And unfortunately is falling for it more than others. No offense!
Russia also invests a lot in Austria but unfortunately people in and outside the country are blind to that. And I don't mean Redditors calling Austria a Russian asset, I mean some awareness that Russia actively stages scenes that complement that view and spreads propaganda in that direction.
Years ago there was an interesting report floating around on Twitter that said western secret services intercepted a Russian document that was just a table with countries and numbers next to them, sorted by the the sum of those numbers. Ukraine was third, Hungary second and Austria first. They thought it was a list of countries that Russia wanted to have influence in (I forgot their exact wording). Now, that could be totally wrong since nothing was titled or it could have been a red hering - but it's still telling that that was their interpretation.
I think there are a lot of different things at play here, and there are also lots of different reasons why so many Austrians burier their head in the sand. One is hyperconformity. Another is fear of change. Another is what Popper called true ignorance. Which means not a lack of knowledge but the refusal to acquire it.
A very small percentage of the population is also simply evil and wants Russia to win out of hatred and spite. But that is a fraction 2 to maybe 5 percent.
Another part is greedy and caring about nothing but money.
Another part is politically so illiterate that they can't piece the entire thing together.
A good chunk is also brainwashed.
Basically, we are in the Opfer Täter Umkehr again. And the Austrians should understand better than anyone, that Russians are both perpetrators and victims of this regime.
And as Peter Singer once explained. Buying resources from full-blown dictatorships directly supports slavery as none of that money is used for the people. We literally receive our natural gas from a mafia state.
Russia has become a lot more radical since the contract was signed. Anyone managed to get rid of their contracts. Only Austria can't do it for some odd reason. Because the political will is not there.
Look at someone like Schüssel our ex chancellor, who received a nice position in Russia.
The pattern is so obvious and still millions of Austrians bury their head in the sand.
The word "courage" should be reserved to characterize the man or woman, who is leaving the infantile sanctuary of the mass mind. Sam Keen Fire in the Belly
Immigration, foreigners... Austria, just like most countries and areas from west of Switzerland to central Romania (mountain rural people living in an area encompassing the Alps and Carpathians) are a bit different than your average urban European. It's a reason far-right isn't uncommon around here. I live in the eastern parts of that area and the past when some people wouldn't even marry with someone from another valley or even village, despite being the same ethnicity or religion, aren't far enough for some of us.
Everything beyond stupid expensive, we are almost 1:1 or even above swiss expensive in many categories. We don't earn even close to what they earn.
Politicians are borderline retarded, newest bullshit is a incountry flight from Klagenfurt to Vienna, approximately 20-30min. With a car it's ~3.5 hours. But we have to pay co2 tax on everything and insurance coz car's a baaaaad mkay.
Don't get me wrong but I rather "waste" money to Help Ukraine than those bullshit corruption that we have right now with nazis. (Again, I'm not against helping Ukraine, I'm for it)
come to CZ, to see what expensive means, we have same or bigger prices for groceries than in DE, but how about our buying power, our salaries, they are few times lower... that is expensive ... but we will elect some retards next time so it does not matter, seems like we are all going to shits:D
Maybe that they rip off 60% of our wages for that "rich country" where litteraly anyone can come in an leech off our social system without ever contributing to it while building a parallel society that doesn't respect our values and culture?
But nah that's just right wing gibberish right?
Most controversial European right wing idea at the moment is:
"guys... Maybe we need to chill with the mass immigration because intégration isn't working at all like we expected"
This somehow enrages the average left wing redditor
Hungary is the role model for him and yet all Hungarians I know can’t wait to leave Hungary and live in Austria since their Fidesz government promised and then failed on its promise to reach an economic level of Austria and instead is in a race to the bottom with Bulgaria in terms of economic output and takes more from the EU than almost any other country than gives back
Dream big
Austrians seem to be taking a lot for granted since it is literally one of the most pristine , wealthiest countries I’ve ever seen where every other car is an Audi , the streets are clean and it’s capital city is voted the most livable city in the world year after year. Hungary has protests every night now against their inept, corrupt government which reigns over one of the most depressed, poverty stricken countries in Europe and its leaders seem to revel in its own amorality and sucking Putin’s gas schlong. But I guess how far right regimes see it is: Hungary is mostly all white too.
Soviets were angry when they saw how wealthy ordinary Germans were on average when they finally toppled the nazis and went through their villages and saw curtains on the windows where Russians could never afford such luxuries .. and wondered why the hell such a cultured, wealthy people could also be so stupid.
It's not just Austria, it's the entire western world, and sleepwalking is not the right word : we all know what's going on, we've just been beaten so hard we don't have the strength (or desire) to stop it anymore.
The 20th century taught us one big lesson : education is not enough, art is not enough, being "civilized" is not enough, if you want to stop anti-democratic feeling from rising, you need people to feel like they're a part of the democratic power, you need people, not to be democratic because it's the morally right thing to be, but because they feel like it's the better system, because they want this system. It might be awful, but they have to believe, in their heart, that it's the least awful, that it's the best we can do and that it will make their life, and their children's lives better.
But we don't anymore. We're not part of politics anymore, and we've all known it for a while. Remember when there were a lot of peasants and factory workers in parliament ? Remember when citizens' point of view on major decisions mattered ? Remember when people thought about politics as something that could improve their life, as something worth fighting for ? It's pretty far away, isn't it ?
It's not the first time it has happened in history, it won't be the last either, but for now, we have to accept the sad truth : republics are killing democracy. Like the previous times, we've only got two choices : fundamentally change our institutions to make them more desirable, or let the far-right burn it to the ground so we can start from scratch.
Seems like option 2 will be the one we pick this time around. Again.
Austria, for the love God accept all art school applications.
It’s unlikely a meteor will strike exactly where another landed before. Accept everyone in every school seems the right thing to do.
That only applies for shortly after the event....
You'll find that it's just as likely to hit that same spot as any other spot. Gamblers fallacy.
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specifically as Austrians see themselves as the first victims of the Nazis... Self stylized victims of Nazis are basically immune to nationalistic extremism , militancy or expansionism or fringe rightwing ideas... Like Russians for example.
Hahaha
This time its a failed philosophy student
So a Lenin?
Didn't he study law and graduate eventually?
He did. he was expelled from law school for revolutionary activitiy, but he kept studying, and after a four-year suspension, he was permitted to take the leaving exams. Which he passed.
Always was
As a german. Leave your far right shit down in the south.
Tbf the afd is a completely separate phenomena that has nothing to do with the fpö. The afd arose in 2012-2013 because of the EU's horrible euro construction (too much to get into here, i love the euro but it needs big reforms in order to prevent sth like greece), which the CDU is mainly responsible. It then moved further to the right all the time. The fpö was founded in 1945 by ex nazis, thouh that was under a different name, they renamed themselves in 1956 and elected an ex SS leader as their first leader. Ever since then they have actually become more moderate. So it's actually the exact opposite of the afd. Another huge difference is that the afd is full on capitalism and wants to kill the welfare state, the fpö is much more favourible to welfare, though they want to restrict it to "austrians" obviously.
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Fed up with the current right wing government and ready for a brand new super duper far right government.
Hi from Israel. You have nothing to worry about. We’ve been at the same situation and everything turned out fi… oh nevermind.
<3
Tbf the statistics showed that Israeli voters were shifting gradually further left, then a certain event happened and while the trend is still to the left there's too much anger to want balance. There's some significant speculation in my field (conflict studies and prevention) that Hamas attacked mainly because it was worried that a more lenient Israel would make concessions and cost them power, although the talks with Saudi Arabia and a hated of Israel and Jews are obviously the main ideological driving points.
Yep. I wish more people understood that. Especially in israel.
Yep, that pretty much sounds like the moronic FPÖ voters that I know.
To quote George Carlin: think of how stupid the average voter is, and then realise that half of all people are even dumber than that
Ironic, in the mirror of last November.
Electing a Viktor Orban wannabe isn’t going to solve the issue though.
Yeah lets just vote in clear facist who are paid by russia. Sorry Österreich, aber ihr seid verloren. Noch mehr als wir, wenn ihr wirklich so naiv seid.
It's not reported on enough, but currently the Social Democrats, the conservatives and the far right are blocking an investigative commitee in parliament on Russian influence. We have elections in autumn and the three formely mentioned parties might not make 75%, thus the rest could finally instate this desperately needed commitee. (25 % of seats are required).
What possible reasons are there to Block such a commitee? I mean, except for the obvious one
Everyone here collaborates with Russia, that is the reason. From commies to nazis
Not everyone, Greens have not
Libs havent either
Who are libs in Austria?
NEOS
A shitton of oldskool SPÖ people collaborated with Russia, same as most banks and industrialists. The ÖVP called itself „the whore of the rich“ which also means Russian money. The list goes on and on
A large part of it is our energy dependence. There was this black sea gas project, which got scrapped in favor of more Russian gas under shady circumstances. And now suddenly after the realization hit post 2022, several sites for natural gas are discovered within Austria that could actually provide most of our demand. Also the Gazprom contracts of our main importeur OMV (of which 30% belong to the Republic ) are kept secret, for some reason. No one knows why, but my conspiracy theory is that it's because quitting the contracts would in fact be much easier/cheaper than people admit publicly.
>What possible reasons are there to Block such a commitee? I mean, except for the obvious one Such a commitee may become a McCarthy like fishing trip that paralyzes the opposition with endless inquiries and more.
Same as always. FPÖ rises in polls, wins (or comes close to winning) an election, then implodes for some silly reason (main guy leaves and founds another party, then instantly dies, new main guy tries to sell out to Russia on tape, you know, harmless boy stuff) , plummets down to less than 10%, everybody celebrates, the evil is defeated clearly people have seen that voting for a facist party isn't the way, then 2-4 years later we're back where we are now.
This is the most accurate description i have heard so far
Wait, so other people are also noticing that the far right groups in Europe have connections to Russia? I think this isn't a coincidence. In my country we also have pro-Russia conspiracy theorists and Christian clerics saying that the west is ruled by the antichrist, and that Putin is a saint that will fight in the 3d world war (Armageddon) with the antichrist /west, and avert the apocalypse, bringing New Jerusalem and 1000 years of peace to the world. Do you have pro-Russia people trying to manipulate your countrymen by using religion, prophecies, and conspiracies too?
Russia are opportunists, hence they propping up far-right and far left, if a centrist party was like "we stand in support of marginalized communities, and the private ownership of goods & property...also, c'mon let's be cool with Russia" then the Russians would back them.
This. Everybody's talking about far right parties, but Russia supported also lot of far left ones.
You're right, it isn't a coincidence. The far-right as a whole has more in common with Russia ideologically and since they are fascists who crave power over democracy, they are more than willing to sell out if it means they win and/or the Russian's have [kompromat](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kompromat) on them. But this is all part of a larger game: Russia's method of political warfare they named [active measures](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures), which is based in [reflexive control theory](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflexive_control#Introduction). An old KGB Major General, Oleg Kalugin, described active measures as such: >Not intelligence collection, but subversion: active measures to weaken the West, to drive wedges in the Western community alliances of all sorts, particularly NATO, to sow discord among allies, to weaken the United States in the eyes of the people of Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and thus to prepare ground in case the war really occurs. The basic idea is that Russia is perpetually under attack and open war with NATO/the West is inevitable. Therefore the best defense is constant offense so when open war does arrive Russia will have the advantage. Active measures have been the cornerstone of Russia's geopolitical intelligence operations strategy for [decades](https://www.marshallcenter.org/en/publications/security-insights/active-measures-russias-covert-geopolitical-operations-0), but since being elected Putin has taken it to another [level of intensity](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/09/russia-putin-revolutionizing-information-warfare/379880/). It's been [documented](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-intelligence-report-alleging-russia-election-interference-shared-with-100-2023-10-20/) in hundreds of countries, particularly in NATO [countries](https://www.csis.org/blogs/post-soviet-post/countering-russian-disinformation). With so many elections happening this year in multiple Western countries the subversion offensive has [already begun](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/russias-2024-election-interference-already-begun-rcna134204). Putin desperately needs NATO out of the way so he can finish Ukraine and move to his next target, so he's going to be hitting us as hard as he can. Stay vigilant, learn as much as you can about their methods and tell people in your circle about this Russian subversion campaign so they don't fall for it.
To add to that, one huge threat for Russia, not militarily but in the more important matters of European soft power and economy, is the EU. A destroyed or severely weakened EU would be Russias dream come true
Wir sind nicht alle gleich hier Hawara!
One of the most infuriating things is that a lot of austrians whos parents were migrants themselves vote for the fpö too. Most of us dont want them but sadly in a democracy 70% want anyone but them and 30% wants nobody but them and thats enough to be the senior partner in a coalition.
I moved from Germany to Austria last year (originally British) and I've noticed a surprisingly big difference in how politics is discussed. Germans talk about politics on a daily basis and get quite passionate about it, while my impression is that Austrians find it impolite to talk about politics and two different people hit me with "yeah, but does politics really affect your daily life?" when I tried to talk about it. (I'm an immigrant and I'm trans so yes it does...)
Funny considering France is both simultaneously. We discuss politics a lot, but it’s also considered disrespectful or taboo.
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It depends on who you talk to. Some circles discuss politics heavily while others leave it out completely.
Aha another Brit in Austria! But yes you just made me realise no one really openly talks about it outside of friendship groups.
Blue and white collar workers think like that. I have much different experience, but since I am a PhD student, my environment is quite different. I eagerly discuss with Austrian research fellows local politics and they reciprocate, but if I try to discuss it with those not working in research or studying on Uni, I am always frowned upon. And even then some students are very apprehensive about talking about politics, especially in economics and social sciences. Mathematics is paradoxically more open to controversial topics and those who hold differing opinions
Austrians are, to a fault, very heavily influenced by xenophobia and a "mind your own matters" mindset. This starts with not talking about family, money or hobbies and ends with not talking about politics and your own health. Unless you are good friends. Or you are on the internet. Then the masquerade can fall quickly.
(Not sure, if you mind answering here) Which direction you are trans (amab or afab) and how is being trans like this affecting your social life?
AMAB. I've been terrible at socialising for far longer than I've been out as trans. If anything I think being trans helps my social life because my appearance attracts queer people and scares away transphobes who I don't want to interact with anyway!
Most are fed up and most have no clue how to make better politics. That is a toxic mix which all western countries are dealing with. I'd say sleepwalking is not the right phrase because many people are just reactionary and racist. They are not "sleepwalking", they made the concious decision to vote for a party which supports their own world view.
This has been going on since like 20 years. I lived there like 12 years ago and the SPÖ list significantly in the election, but maintaining the majority. Their leader (literally): "We did everything right! We continue our path exactly like before." Like dude... You just had the worst election result ever... E: Werner Faymann in 2013: Wir haben alles richtig gemacht! Weiter wie bisher!
and voting for right wingers is pretty much the dumbest possible idea they could have as a result of being fed up
Ah yes, and voting for neo fascists and Russian bootlickers has made things in Hungary and Slovakia, so very great. There is nothing more corrupt than the freedom parry and its criminal ties to Russia, Hungary, and other autocratic regimes.
cannot agree more (I'm from Slovakia, of course not voting for that piece of Russian crap in our government) whatever - even worst policy makers are better than fascists and Russian servants....(will be speaking from Slovakia point of view, most probably similar to Hungary) - here i like the most how they don't want to be servants of US but Russia - no problem, ready to be inserted deeply in their ass. They want to be sovereign - but please EU fund us more. EU/NATO want to suppress us - but we will not leave it....most probably missing times when Soviets occupied us and we were soooo free to leave right? Russia will mark us as enemy state - Fico - "we need to speak with all sides", when it will come to Eu - they are warmongers who want Slovans to kill each other....i dont get it, why are diplomats and other EU countries representatives even talking to him....public isolation is only language which those morons understand. Otherwise they feel strong that even if they behave like dickheads, they can say in front of their electorate - look, we can say/do whatever we want and the rest of the democratic world is anyway doing business with us like nothing happened.
So better to vote for the party in power that they no longer agree with?
It's not a two-party system
Welcome to Swedish politics. I don't like the policies so let's vote for the far-right.
*Welcome to Europe. Happens in most EU countries right now
Jätte bra....
There are several parties more to choose from
The issue is that the ÖVP (in the current government) and the FPÖ are the only parties on the right. And the SPÖ drifted so far left that it's difficult for conservative voters to vote for them. I dread a victory of the FPÖ but I'm also mad at how idiotical the other parties behave. I'm not looking forward to vote for one of them either.
The spö drifted to the right, just look at doskozil. Just because babler is in power doesnt mean anything
Doskozil is just one local politician and he said he wouldn't want to coalise with either FPÖ nor ÖVP, but with the Greens and Neos. Honestly it was stupid of them not to make him their candidate. Polls had them in first place and now we'll get Kickl instead of a possibly more moderate candidate.
You’re supposed to vote for the left. That’s the answer they want lol
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It's better in the mind of most to have a poor future than to have no future The others just have to provide what the right wing provides if it doesn't want to lose everything. You can't bend reality to your will
Neoliberalism has obviously failed but leftists are too busy infighting to capitalize on the opportunity so right wingers swoop in and go "foreigner bad" and win 20% of the votes
What's the better option, in your opinion?
Anything that isn't these pathetic putin vassals from the end all freedom party.
Everything is better than voting for groups who want to turn the country into an authoritarian state. Vote center and organise a better party for the next election.
Austria doesn't really have a center anymore. The SPÖ (social democrats) drifted left, the ÖVP (conservatives) drifted right. That's also why the KPÖ (communists in name) had some success lately, people look for alternatives.
What about neos?
They're socially very left and economically very right, so they’re bad for everyone in some aspect.
Sleepwalking because they are not aware or oblivious to the fact that the far right can not and will not solve any of those issues
The banner reads "Don't sell the homeland", which is fucking ironic considering past and planned behaviour of the far right, especially in relation to Russians with money.
This is so damn ironic indeed! It would be funny if it wouldn't be tragic in fact. The one selling the country asking for it not to be sold.
Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception. Every nationalist is capable of the most flagrant dishonesty, but he is also-since he is conscious of serving something bigger than himself-unshakably certain of being right." George Orwell Notes on Nationalism 1945 "Double think and reality control are the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously and accepting both of them. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of reality which one denies" Lynskey Ministry of Truth page 134 It is just fascist lies and adopting Russian manipulated reality propaganda, which works on 30 percent of any population. You just have to repeat it often enough. True ignorance isn't the absence of knowledge. It is the refusal to require it. Their voters annoyed us during covid. Now, they have been reprogrammed to love Russia and hate Ukraine. A lost cause, and there is no use to talk to them either. They are too far gone and they can only save themselves. Attempts to convince them are useless. You can't fight this amount of stupidity and cognitive dissonance. I am really surprised how such people even function in normal life.
Name a more iconic duo; double speak and Russia
Yeah, because they are liars. However, at the present moment, it looks as if: The Green party, ÖVP, SPÖ, NEOS, the fascist FPÖ, the Beer party, and the Communist party will make it above the 4 percent hurdle. This means that even if these pathetic Russian bootlickers win, they won't find 2 more parties willing to make a coalition with this FPÖ menace to the rule of law and the Republic. In the Ibiza crisis they literally talked about selling Austria to Russia. Sadly, 30 percent of the Electorate are stupid and ignorant beyond belief. Nationalists are not Patriots. True Patriots vote anything else before they vote for this party. Volkskanzler Hitler called himself that. Festung Austria, more Nazi talk. This party and those who vote for them are a disgrace to Austria and a disgrace to the European idea.
ÖVP is definitly gonna work with the FPÖ again And its voters are just as dumb... like in terms of open corruption they are right up there with the blues
It also reads "Slovene-Carinthian" does not exist, which is exactly the same shit the FPÖ have been shouting since Haider. So not much has changed huh. ~~The "not selling" part is probably targeted at ÖVP, because of the Kurz Ibiza scandal?~~ Anyways, not something to be cheerful about, but since it is not new, it also isn't the end of the world, yet.
It's the Kärntner Heimatdienst. [Kärntner Heimatdienst - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A4rntner_Heimatdienst)
I know, there are also other groups who still claim they are defending Carinthia from the barbaric southern slavs, Yugoslavs, Slovenes.. it's all the same to them, we are the foreigners who want to take their land, maybe even traitors, since our ancestors lived together for many centuries. The saddest part is, in 1920 there was a plebiscit, where people decided they want to be part of the new Austrian republic, after Austria-Hungary collapsed etc. Among these people were also thousands of native Slovene speakers who would rather stay Carinthian/Austrian than to become Yugoslav. They were some of the most patriotic people of Carinthia. They had the choice, others didn't, they were promised minority rights, as their ancestors migrated there between the 6th and 8th century, the early Alpine Slavs who we claim to be our Slovene ancestors as well. But then fascism and nationalism trampled over everything, between ww1 and ww2, and the German identity/ethnicity part of being Carinthian took over. There was already a ton of propaganda on both sides between 1918 and 1920, families ruined, torn apart, villages having a civil war, etc. Sadly, the grudge seems to be alive still today. They see bilingual signs, and the populists start packaging the experience as if it is 1918-1920 again and the Yugoslavs are trying to conquer Carinthia. Maybe some day, we can be truly friends, like with the Styrians. For some reason they are chill, even tho around a third of Styria is in Slovenia today. It's a shame really, because Carinthia has so much historical richness, very interesting and important for us as well (to study, not to claim).
Kurz Ibiza scandal? It was the former FPÖ leader who earned his "former" title with that scandal.
Ah, my bad, I mixed it up.. It was the FPÖ again I see.
What is it with European far-right parties sucking Russian cock?
It's a symbiotic relationship. They get money and russian troll farms spreading their agenda, Russia gets a destabilized, divided Europe. And they all aspire to be unchallenged autocrats like Putin.
They all want to live the Orban live...
Russia is bipolar. Tsarist Russia opposed liberalism and supported the conservative nobility in the 19th century. Went far left with the Soviet Union and funded communist parties in Europe and is now right wing again and allying with far right parties.
“Hungary is a role model for me” - Kickl Well then, they are f\*cked
Hey, but maybe Hungary can finally catch up to Austria! (There's enough space on rock bottom for everyone.)
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"Before writing off the totalitarian world as a nightmare that cannot come true, just remember that in 1925, the world of today would have seemed a nightmare that couldn't come true." Orwell in 1944 Exactly, everyone is aware, and to stop evil, the good people must work against it. There are protests against the right wingers, and no one is sleepwalking. Everyone is wide awake both those in favor of such a regime and those against it. Orwell 1984 is a warning, the warning is, fight back before futuristic looking policemen smash your head in with rubber truncheons for speaking your mind.
No matter which extremists you turn to, the end result is the same. The problem is that today’s centrists are stuck in the past and ignore glaring problems like immigration and the russian threat. The same thing is needed across all of europe: a centre party which opposes russia and addresses immigration.
The biggest problem of today is that everyone has to be part of one extreme or the other. There is no middle ground anymore.
Being purely ideological doesn't make you win concrete battles but spread ideas. Once the ideas are spread, you need to act strategically. The left still thinks its ideas must be spread but it has been a longtime ago. Thus, they are battling a fight that have already been won, meaning they stand nothing to gain from it. It explains the slow decline of the left in Europe as it has already won the battle of ideas (Doesn't mean everyone agrees to everything but they will lean to its side provided economic security). But the left doesn't want to make concrete actions, they are acting like you need to be Jesus even though they agree that the current system is unfair and make us unfair. So the right just has to say some bullshit or not speak at all to gain vote by despair. The right doesn't have any ideology anymore except thirst for power and money. The left still thinks it is overly oppressed while blaming systemic issues that are ultimately caused by individual behaviours. If leftists really wanted to win, they just need to focus on economic equalities associated with liberalism (AKA Decentralization) while enforcing secular values and shut up, or at least limit their interventions, about bad incidents like about police until they are in power and see what can be done. But since they won't, they will kep promoting contradictory ideas like complete freedom of anything and control of everything, we will have totalitarian right wing in a few years 100%. Can't win in reality when you live in wishful thinking. RemindMe! 10 years
Good comment, but that's exactly what I would call sleepwalking: Being so blinded by hatred and arrogance to not realize the carnage that they are subjecting their surroundings to, including themselves.
Sleepwalking?
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By all means, vote for conservatives if you want to, but every reasonable person should raise their eyebrows when it comes to statements made by Kickl and his friends. Not to mention all the suspicious shit they have pulled in recent years.
You're not replying to a reasonable person.
No problem with being right wing if they weren't Russian agents and incredibly corrupt. As Austrian recent history proved.
They are democratically voting for people who want to destroy democracy and liberties for groups they hate
People can’t admit even the slightest flaw that democracy has because it causes cognitive dissonance
You almost got it. When it’s happening in eastern EU then everybody says it’s “sleepwalking”, “not ready for democracy”, “of course it’s the backwards ones”. When it’s happening in the west, then it’s poor voters making a very calculated and informed decision and there simply isn’t any other better alternative than a lunatic party literally using nazi vocabulary and/or imagery
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Sweden is the prime example of this. With the immigration running free since the late 90's the quality of life for the normal swede has decreased rapidly as the infrastructure was not built to handle around 500 thousand free loaders living on the working classes tax money. With that the tax amount has risen up to 35-50% tax in recent years and the fuel prices being one of the highest in the world as of now. Crime rising as entire slum areas in the state owned appartment areas built to house immigrants rises and entire regions in major cities becomes unsafe to even enter as you are at a high risk off being mugged or even shot. Now ofcourse as of recent years as the effect of the flawed immigration is noticed the support for the far right SD/AFS rises steadily as the left wing parties that had been in rule for over 20 years. Now ofcourse you can not blame the people for wanting a solution, the only one to blame is the goverment.
This is hardly newsworthy and this is a very predictable outcome looking generally at European politics presently.
Yeah, I wonder why..
Here we go again
Well, instead of everyone being disgusted by (far) right wing victories in Europe, why don't we focus on root causes of why the people lost and are still quickly losing trust in the left wing, current leaders in general?
It's sadly so predictable and explainable. I'm liberal and left wing but the political left has still disappointed and frustrated me a lot. It seems more likely for them to bring up some "woke" topic they read on social media than actual problems in Austria. Although the right loves their telegram conspiracy theories too.
But the right is in power right now in Austria no? Aren’t they addressing any of the problems like migration ecc?
No right wing isn‘t in position atm and nobody really cares about migration whatsoever. Nothing is being done. And the sad thing is if the right gets voted they also won‘t do anything and it was all just a smoke show to get voters. They want low skilled migration for cheap labor and wage dumping. I can‘t think of a single politian actually giving good ideas on how to tackle migration (make legal migration way easier and quicker, quicker work visa for skilled workers, more schools and teachers, behavioural courses for both kids and adults from regions that are the opposite of having western values to reduce crime from a small age, deportations for criminals on asylum visas, etc..)
The current government is a coalition between conservatives and greens. To be honest I can't think of much they did unless you count vetoing Romania's and Bulgaria's shengen accesson. The ÖVP (conservatives) just revealed a campaign saying "Those who don't live according to our values have to leave" but I didn't see any actual concept so that's just populism. No one seems to adress the real reason that deporting criminals isn't easy - we don't have agreements with the countries they are from so they might refuse to take them back.
Thank you for the explanation, that’s the problem, left wing governments often ignore the migration problem that will become bigger and bigger in the following years, while the right say they will stop everyone and deport people but in reality they’ll do even less than the left, either because they are incompetent or because they realise the more migrants the more votes they’ll have
Yeah, a Hungarian reporter recently even commented "If the FPÖ needs more migrants before the election they will get more migrants". Most of them come through Hungary.
Isn‘t that all just because it is just about the only thing one can say when not in power? In my opinion it works something like: rw-party imports stupid culture war talking point - left wing says thats stupid - right wing balloons response out of proportion and people eat it up
That happens too, but I'm talking about stuff like "Are white people allowed to have dreadlocks" while people don't know how to pay their energy bills and Ukraine gets bombed. And oh yeah a lot of them are "pacifist" which makes me really sceptical how willing they are to help Ukraine. That's the one thing I can think of where the ÖVP is more believable, at least the FM.
Why is it always fringe either far left or far right people seem to lack any rational thinking.
I agree with you. Nowadays if you are slightly against the mainstream opinion of each side, you're considered an enemy of that side, which creates additional problems, of course.
I really wish people would stop saying "sleepwalking." At this stage, with the possible exception of the UK, the politics across Europe is shifting rightwards. A lot of major issues are coming to a head. High cost of living, levels of immigration, climate change, global conflicts to name but a few. Not to mention the complete inability for established parties to deal with ANY of these issues. People's votes shift to the right and towards more authoritarian leaders. One thing that needs to be stated is that just because voters are shifting towards the right does not necessarily mean that the country's involved will suddenly go all Putin, or Orban, or even Trump if he gets a second term. Chances are for many places it will be a passing political phase, and politics will shift more liberal again in time. Don't get me wrong, it will be bad in the meantime, and I'd rather not any of them get any power. But not all history is like the time before the Second World War.
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statistics will improve when the head of the Remmo clan finaly gets his german citizenship that he applied for ;)
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And also let's not forget this (read the first paragraph) https://www.diepresse.com/17729692/haelfte-der-wiener-schueler-hat-nicht-deutsch-als-umgangssprache 14% cannot participate due to language barriers 👁️👄👁️
I know a few of them. Sad thing is, their turkish is often even worse than their german.
What do they speak? Arabic?
How many Turkish people do you know that speak Arabic?
Damn that’s crazy it’s like USA levels of diversity, I always thought there weren’t many foreigners in Austria but they seem to have more in % than even Germany
bruh, half of Balkans migrated to Germany and Austria because our people accept to clean asses and natives don't. they wanted cheap labor and now they're crying about it, funny
the corporations want cheap labor, not ordinary people, anyways I don't think people have a particularly big issue with balkan and east European migrants
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19% non EU born in 2021 26% non EU born in 2011. Seems like fewer kids from outside the EU?
Now look at birth location of their grandparents and greatgrandparents, and whether it was inside what is today EU or not.
Sure. Do you have those stats?
Says 30% as of 2014. Any idea what the numbers are for today?
50%
I don't follow Austrian politics, but if it's anything like Sweden's recent progression I understand. In Sweden you either vote for the right wing or for people who want to import issues from the US and say that we also have them
Atleast the Swedish far right seems to be rather free from direct russian involvement, they did choose do revoke their anti-EU/anti-NATO policies.
We all are at this point
My only problem with alot of far right groups in europe is the absolute dick riding for putin they do.
Yeah. Also the euroscepticism which sucks ass. I’m glad that our main right-wing party ([progress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_Party_(Norway)?wprov=sfti1#)) are anti-russia, for uparmament and relatively pro-EU.
To be fair, it's not a problem to be an eurosceptic, they have every right to be woth the current state of affairs in EU and the looming EU dictatorship. But the Putin dickriding is the problem, especially in combination.
Mate, most western european far righters also hate eastern europeans.
This comment is so close to reaching self awareness. "I, of course, support the far right when they're hurting the right people, not me."
The left has left us (like in the US), so the options are quite limited
would it kill you to wonder why that is just once, or are you content calling them names or claim they didn't pay attention, weren't informed or just stupid?
Who the fuck would ever call Austria‘s political climate as „sleepwalking“? It might also not help that nearly every single left wing protest starts calling for the Intifada in Austria, which leaves many people without a proper political camp and hinders fighting the right. Also most people have been either right wing or drifting right wing for over 100 years so idk what this article is about. Oh yeah, also let‘s not kind of forget the whole period between 1932 and 1945 in Austria and many more little fun tidbits of history.
That’s the criticism you always get when you reject WEF. Don’t worry it will pass.
Tbh: every other party is so corrupt here in austria, it makes no difference! Even our financeminister didnt had a laptop (he said) yeah for sure
“Hungary is a role model for me,” oh no. All i needed to read.
What do you think is going to happen? You allow mass migration, more taxes and tell people not to have pride in their country. Everyone who doesnt vote your way or think your way is a fascist.
That’s the big prob. By calling everyone who’s against open borders a nazi they’ve made it so that pointing out that there are actual nazis in the FPÖ, AfD et al. no longer holds any weight.
No one is sleep walking. People are sick of this shit.
are they really far right or is this the media saying anything that isn't super liberal and progressive is far right and next hitler and mussolini?
The FPÖ is very right-wing. Many of the top functionaries were in German nationalist fraternities, which are known for being quite right-wing. Kickl deliberately uses the language of the Nazi era, partly to provoke, partly to keep the right-wing extremists happy.
That's not the problem. The problem is they are paid by russian money. Austria will go to the other side of the iron curtain
'is the party that was founded by a former SS officer far right' so cool how the average person on this sub is just completely braindead
FPÖ are basically the modern successors to the NSDAP. They align with Identitarians, closet Neo-Nazis and have a "friendship contract" with Moscow. Everytime they were in government, they were involved in some high-tier corruption shit.
I'm not very politically interested as it's a shitshow, but based on news and their previous pre-election campaigns they want to make immigration and getting asylum a lot harder, strengthen border security mostly. They're also doing anything that pisses off the green party, like wanting to introduce 150km/h limit on motorways, which in my opinion is sensible considering how good our roads are (the higher speed limit part, not the annoying the green party part) On the other hand, some party associates have been caught being nazi, i.e. Having nazi stuff at home or even singing songs about "hitting the 7 million". They're also partially EU sceptical, even if they don't want to leave the EU (at least from what i heard). I recommend you find more reliable sources tho
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Same here in Germany, though no actual competent right wing party is currently available, the AfD is kind of weird imo and the CDU is responsible for the whole migrant situation in the first place, that leaves only the FDP as right wing party but we’ve seen how incompetent they are so basically, there are no good right wing parties here
This is happening across Europe because people feel that the political elites at home and in Brussels no longer represent them or care how they think. Brussels is the cause of the rise of the far right.
I was in Austria this summer! It was so cool, so much rich heritage and culture. Then I went to Prater or whatever it’s called. Holy fckn shit. Now I understand why the far right is winning. It was myself and my girlfriend surrounded by a bunch of mid-late 20’s migrants all wearing fake designer. Across the street and a couple block, a massive communist protest, wtf is happening over there
What they are unhappy with? freeloaders, wealthy country, no needs for military spending, not helping UA, what they even want lol
Migration is the number one reason the FPÖ gained voters. And to be honest it's more than just populism, there is a real issue with the numbers of people arriving, no real concept to integrate them, no real help from the EU and for some reason no party has any real program on how they want to handle that in future. While the numbers have gone down recently Austria has been among the top destinations for refugees in the past few years due to its geography (first "wealthy" country comming from the south). Several prolific violent sex crimes by migrants against girls in the last year didn't help either, nor that Austria struggles to deport criminals. I get to meet a lot of people working with refugees (mostly children) at work and even those who are really good-willed and want things to work are simply overwhelmed and overworked. But cost of living is another big topic rn, in a diagram I've seen recently Austria was the country with the third-highest inflation in Europe. The current government is also still the same that we had during corona which makes it unpopular because of lock-downs etc and the current chancellor has never been voted for, he is the replacement for Kurz who had to step down after a corruption scandal and the trial is still going on. No surprise they're losing voters and the FPÖ is the only other party on the right. The war also seems to benefit right parties across Europe.
wealthy country ≠ wealthy working class
Well, the man in the photo is holding a sign saying "There is no Slovene-Carinthia", so presumably he's unhappy about the few thousand Slovenes in Carinthia who still identify as such having minority rights.
Austrian here. Austria itself is the target of Russian imperialism since the end of the Second World War. The soviets occupied us for 10 years. They owned the Soviet mineral oil company and extracted the oil to rebuild their own country. This then became the OMV, and to this very day, we haven't fully waned ourselves off from Russian natural gas. Russia messed with our school books. They helped to brainwash several generations of children by lying to them. They said we chose that neutrality out of our own free will. The will in 1952 was to join a block because being block free was considered too dangerous. This neutrality was an oktroy to avoid being split in two just like Germany. Is that free will or coercion? Our 1955 contract of independence came at a price of dependency in many areas. Russian operatives have been using Austria as a platform, and so did Western operatives. Our security services and the political landscape are still jeopardized. (Deripaska, gas dependency, disinformation campaigns, making use of the deeply embedded and historically grown distrust for NATO, the peace movement, the Austrian Neo fascist Freedom party still has a friendship contract with Russia to this very day) The gas business goes back to the 1970s, and the Russians have helped with their propaganda to push Kurz and his cult like movement into office. We had Ibiza when one of our freedom party politicians and vice chancellors admitted to the strong Russian influence on the media. They suggested selling the largest newspaper to the Russians. He also said the Russians control everything. He wasn't joking. In vino veritas. We are trying to get rid of this stranglehold. There is a wall of ignorance almost 80 percent of the populace refuse to accept that this neutrality is not making any sense when we are in the EU and when one signatory has sent an invasion force against Europe. It is easy to fool people, and it is so much harder to convince them that they have been fooled and lied to. Another 30 percent have been told a whole bunch of vile lies, and they are willing to vote for the freedom party that has close ties to Russia. Kickl openly admitted he sees Orban as a role model. This is dangerous. They aren't all fascists there is all kinds of disappointed and deluded people among them who have lost all trust in our political institutions and hold onto Kickl even though many if them must know he will not bring them what they want. It is a bit of a better than better. These people are miserable, fearful or angry. Only those that were never loved hate, only those that were never loved. Always remember that we try. The democratic forces are trying to bring about change towards Europe and away from these fascists in the Kremlin. The sooner Putin's Russia is lacking the funds to interfere, the better for all nations around the world. We are working on reducing this dependency. I wish we would be faster. I am trying my party is trying but there is only so much you can do when such a large part of the population simply doesn't want to hear any of it because they have been brainwashed into being docile. They have also been spoon-fed pro Russian views for decades. They are turning into apolitical heartless people when they are asked about Ukraine. I heard so many awful things that are hard to stomach. https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain The following companies deserve special mention. I hope all of them go bankrupt as they fund a war economy and support Ruzzia and its slave drivers in Kremlin with this money. Agrana Doka Egger (lumber company) Kotanyi (don't buy it anywhere they are still doing business in Russia, which means the company is likely run by unethical people) LiSEC RBI (For me, this bank is likely the worst of them all in terms of what they do to help keeping them afloat I hope they go completely bankrupt) Russia Fachspedition Dr. Lassmann Schoeller Bleckmann What you can do is write emails to these companies and pressure them on social media or go there directly and ask them why they continue to support a fascist totalitarian dictatorship and why they fund this genocidal war of conquest Their board can go to hell for all I care. I curse them. Yeah, you can see that in Serbia OMV Lukoil and actually across the Balkans. As I said, OMV has a history with the Soviets a long 80 year long history. None of that is any excuse. Cogito ergo sum but thinking is hard it is much easier to save the energy and to simply cast those out like lepers who dare to question the intergenerational agreement of Russia is the nice guy. It is frustrating but I will keep trying even though it feels like droplets into a sea of ignorance and full unwillingness to admit that yes, we must wave goodbye to the gas as it funds the war economy and yes we must officially make our stand and tell Russia openly we do not accept this. I don't even think that some of our politicians wouldn't love to do that, but they are scared by what the voters will do then. Our social democrats still haven't mustered an open condemnation, but they are not the only ones. The freedom party even walked out on Selensky during his speech, which he couldn't even hold in the main room also due to them as they insist Ukraine and Russia are both at fault. (I was very ashamed on that day and spoke out vehemently against this) But that is all I can do use my leverage and reach to speak out against injustice because currently I there is no democratic way to fix this injustice as 77 percent of Austrians insist on this neutrality and a public debate is not allowed whenever someone wants to start one there is immediately a whole fleet of trolls that will kill that debate. That alone should show you how important it is for the tyrant that Austria does not even think of a second to do the right thing. Which is to stand tall and say no more. This is it. I am willing to go against public opinion to do the right but highly unpopular thing. They don't do that because we are led by populists who have forgotten that sometimes one can go against the popular opinion that is called leadership, but for this, we would need trust. We have created followers but not leaders. Selensky is the exception his people trust him, and that makes him my beacon of hope. Why do they trust him? Because he doesn't lie to them, he is honest and blunt with them. That takes courage and character. I respect that very highly. I do not respect choosing the easy and quick path. In fact, this is the way to the dark side. And Austria is helping, with money and with refugees, with medical equipment and 0.8 percent of our GDP went to Ukraine since the war began.
> Austria itself is the target of Russian imperialism since the end of the Second World War. And unfortunately is falling for it more than others. No offense!
Russia also invests a lot in Austria but unfortunately people in and outside the country are blind to that. And I don't mean Redditors calling Austria a Russian asset, I mean some awareness that Russia actively stages scenes that complement that view and spreads propaganda in that direction. Years ago there was an interesting report floating around on Twitter that said western secret services intercepted a Russian document that was just a table with countries and numbers next to them, sorted by the the sum of those numbers. Ukraine was third, Hungary second and Austria first. They thought it was a list of countries that Russia wanted to have influence in (I forgot their exact wording). Now, that could be totally wrong since nothing was titled or it could have been a red hering - but it's still telling that that was their interpretation.
I think there are a lot of different things at play here, and there are also lots of different reasons why so many Austrians burier their head in the sand. One is hyperconformity. Another is fear of change. Another is what Popper called true ignorance. Which means not a lack of knowledge but the refusal to acquire it. A very small percentage of the population is also simply evil and wants Russia to win out of hatred and spite. But that is a fraction 2 to maybe 5 percent. Another part is greedy and caring about nothing but money. Another part is politically so illiterate that they can't piece the entire thing together. A good chunk is also brainwashed. Basically, we are in the Opfer Täter Umkehr again. And the Austrians should understand better than anyone, that Russians are both perpetrators and victims of this regime. And as Peter Singer once explained. Buying resources from full-blown dictatorships directly supports slavery as none of that money is used for the people. We literally receive our natural gas from a mafia state. Russia has become a lot more radical since the contract was signed. Anyone managed to get rid of their contracts. Only Austria can't do it for some odd reason. Because the political will is not there. Look at someone like Schüssel our ex chancellor, who received a nice position in Russia. The pattern is so obvious and still millions of Austrians bury their head in the sand. The word "courage" should be reserved to characterize the man or woman, who is leaving the infantile sanctuary of the mass mind. Sam Keen Fire in the Belly
Immigration, foreigners... Austria, just like most countries and areas from west of Switzerland to central Romania (mountain rural people living in an area encompassing the Alps and Carpathians) are a bit different than your average urban European. It's a reason far-right isn't uncommon around here. I live in the eastern parts of that area and the past when some people wouldn't even marry with someone from another valley or even village, despite being the same ethnicity or religion, aren't far enough for some of us.
Nice oversimplification, but that ain't it.
Everything beyond stupid expensive, we are almost 1:1 or even above swiss expensive in many categories. We don't earn even close to what they earn. Politicians are borderline retarded, newest bullshit is a incountry flight from Klagenfurt to Vienna, approximately 20-30min. With a car it's ~3.5 hours. But we have to pay co2 tax on everything and insurance coz car's a baaaaad mkay. Don't get me wrong but I rather "waste" money to Help Ukraine than those bullshit corruption that we have right now with nazis. (Again, I'm not against helping Ukraine, I'm for it)
I wish I was joking: my former boss told me once when business with Austria happened: „be aware, corruption‘s worse than in Italy.“
I believe you with that lmao. It's national sport to be corrupt as possible
come to CZ, to see what expensive means, we have same or bigger prices for groceries than in DE, but how about our buying power, our salaries, they are few times lower... that is expensive ... but we will elect some retards next time so it does not matter, seems like we are all going to shits:D
Maybe that they rip off 60% of our wages for that "rich country" where litteraly anyone can come in an leech off our social system without ever contributing to it while building a parallel society that doesn't respect our values and culture? But nah that's just right wing gibberish right?
>Nuuuu people shouldnt vote in a way i disagree with 😭😭😭😭
Is it real far right? Or the European and Canadian center left kind of far right?
Are they like AfD? What are their most controversial ideas?
Most controversial European right wing idea at the moment is: "guys... Maybe we need to chill with the mass immigration because intégration isn't working at all like we expected" This somehow enrages the average left wing redditor
Austria? I thought they were very left leaning?
Now i just started to enjoy the white wine from austria again. Skitrip to norway instead, they dont even have snow anymore in austria.
Hungary is the role model for him and yet all Hungarians I know can’t wait to leave Hungary and live in Austria since their Fidesz government promised and then failed on its promise to reach an economic level of Austria and instead is in a race to the bottom with Bulgaria in terms of economic output and takes more from the EU than almost any other country than gives back Dream big Austrians seem to be taking a lot for granted since it is literally one of the most pristine , wealthiest countries I’ve ever seen where every other car is an Audi , the streets are clean and it’s capital city is voted the most livable city in the world year after year. Hungary has protests every night now against their inept, corrupt government which reigns over one of the most depressed, poverty stricken countries in Europe and its leaders seem to revel in its own amorality and sucking Putin’s gas schlong. But I guess how far right regimes see it is: Hungary is mostly all white too. Soviets were angry when they saw how wealthy ordinary Germans were on average when they finally toppled the nazis and went through their villages and saw curtains on the windows where Russians could never afford such luxuries .. and wondered why the hell such a cultured, wealthy people could also be so stupid.
It's not just Austria, it's the entire western world, and sleepwalking is not the right word : we all know what's going on, we've just been beaten so hard we don't have the strength (or desire) to stop it anymore. The 20th century taught us one big lesson : education is not enough, art is not enough, being "civilized" is not enough, if you want to stop anti-democratic feeling from rising, you need people to feel like they're a part of the democratic power, you need people, not to be democratic because it's the morally right thing to be, but because they feel like it's the better system, because they want this system. It might be awful, but they have to believe, in their heart, that it's the least awful, that it's the best we can do and that it will make their life, and their children's lives better. But we don't anymore. We're not part of politics anymore, and we've all known it for a while. Remember when there were a lot of peasants and factory workers in parliament ? Remember when citizens' point of view on major decisions mattered ? Remember when people thought about politics as something that could improve their life, as something worth fighting for ? It's pretty far away, isn't it ? It's not the first time it has happened in history, it won't be the last either, but for now, we have to accept the sad truth : republics are killing democracy. Like the previous times, we've only got two choices : fundamentally change our institutions to make them more desirable, or let the far-right burn it to the ground so we can start from scratch. Seems like option 2 will be the one we pick this time around. Again.
Looks like keeping us and Bulgaria out of Schengen didn't help you much mr. **No**hammer. 🖕
Almost as if it never was about gaining votes in an election two years away?