2009 State and European Parliament Elections in Austria

[Хahar 🤔]

Pretty impressive, considering that Austria is now 61-36 center-right ...

Please don't say that. The ÖVP is the only center-right party.

[Kevinstat]

Pretty impressive, considering that Austria is now 61-36 center-right ...

Please don't say that. The ÖVP is the only center-right party.

Perhaps "right of center" should be used instead of center-right.  Or perhaps "right" would cover both center-right and far right.

[Хahar 🤔]

Pretty impressive, considering that Austria is now 61-36 center-right ...

Please don't say that. The ÖVP is the only center-right party.

Perhaps "right of center" should be used instead of center-right.  Or perhaps "right" would cover both center-right and far right.

"Right" works just fine.

[Tender Branson]

Big trouble for the (almost non-existing) Tyrolian BZÖ:

Party chair Gerhard Huber had an affair with an asylum seeker from Georgia and was blackmailed by a guy who knew about it in February. He asked some friends via telephone to "make sure this guy gets into hospital for 2 weeks or get rid of him alltogether" and to "silence his Georgian friend", because she wanted to tell Huber's wife about the affair. The police is now investigating the allegations. Huber says its a conspiracy against him.

After the charges were made public, almost all members of the Tyrol-BZÖ withdrew from the party and announced the creation of the "Christian Civil Union" (CBU).

http://diepresse.com/home/politik/innenpolitik/496101/index.do?from=gl.home_politik

[Хahar 🤔]

Did any MPs join?

[Tender Branson]

Did any MPs join?

The story is roughly 2 hours old, I let you know if they do ...

[minionofmidas]

So - did anybody act on Huber's suggestions?

[Tender Branson]

So - did anybody act on Huber's suggestions?

That's not clear yet.

Allthough Huber has filed charges against one of his former aides, who accused him of the murder for hire. Then the aide filed against Huber ... and so on.

[Tender Branson]

Interesting stuff going on here in the last few days:

It has been revealed that the Austrian Federal Financing Agency (ÖBFA) has lost 600 Mio. € in taxpayer money due to speculative investments. The ÖBFA belongs to the Finance Ministry of Josef Pröll (ÖVP), who is also the Vice-Chancellor of Austria. This is a huge problem for the ÖVP, because they always bragged about being the "party who can best manage the economy and taxes". Chancellor Faymann quickly jumped on the ÖVP and demanded a parliamentary inquiry in the mess. 81% of Austrians back Faymann on this, according to the new IFES poll below. 83% oppose speculative investments of taxpayer money in general. 60% think this scandal is bad for the ÖVP, 27% don't. Pröll even lied to parliament earlier this year that there were no tax money losses due to speculations, even though the Audit Office (RH) had a report on it out in autumn of 2008 ...

President Fischer has also demanded an end to these speculations, saying that the "neoliberal philosophy" must be abandoned alltogether. The human being has to be most important, not the profit.

http://diepresse.com/home/politik/innenpolitik/497487/index.do

Article:

http://www.wienerzeitung.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=4082&Alias=wzo&cob=426463

Meanwhile the ÖVP, who was leading the SPÖ after their devastating EU election result by up to 5%, has fallen back again in the polls. Here's the latest IFES poll:

SPÖ: 30%
ÖVP: 29%
FPÖ: 17%
Greens: 15%
BZÖ: 5%
Others: 4%

Very strong showing by the Greens, who attacked the ÖVP too and used to poll only 8-11% just until recently.

Article:

http://www.wienerzeitung.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=3858&Alias=wzo&cob=427148

[Tender Branson]

President Fischer has also demanded an end to these speculations.

Austrian President Heinz Fischer has denounced the speculative use of tax-payers’ money as Chancellor Werner Faymann called a "speculation summit" for the end of the month on the issue.

He said: "There should be absolutely no speculation with tax-payers’ money. I understand that state money sometimes needs to be invested because it is more reasonable to invest it than to leave it in a cash account. The decisive question is where the border between speculation and investment is."

As for claims speculation could lead to big profits, Fischer said: "The danger of big losses increases when the chances of making a big profit increase in an unreasonable manner."

Fischer, speaking in interview in a number of media, said the experience of the last 15 years during which efforts to make big, fast profits had increased had left him feeling uneasy.

"I have never had a fetish for privatisation as many privatisations are reasonable. But I have never agreed with those who say, ‘More privatisation, less state.’ It is a mistake to give profit priority over everything else and to look at labour as only a cost factor. It is necessary to rethink neo-liberal philosophy," the president said.

Social Democratic (SPÖ) Chancellor Werner Faymann is also worried about speculation involving state money.

Faymann has called a "speculation summit" on 31 July for discussion of ways to prevent such speculation. He has invited People’s Party (ÖVP) Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Josef Pröll, Audit Office (RH) President Josef Moser, National Bank (OeNB) Governor Ewald Nowotny, Financial Market Supervisory Authority chief Helmut Ettl and SPÖ State Secretary for Finance Josef Ostermayer to attend.

Faymann said during a radio interview yesterday (Weds) that it was not the government’s job to take unnecessary risks at tax-payers’ expense. He said the summit would examine "how we can say to the people that we will take the right steps to prevent repetition of speculation with state money."

The summit comes after the recent revelation by the Audit Office that the Federal Financing Agency (ÖBFA) had lost more than 600 million Euros in speculative investments over the last few years.

RH said in its report last week ÖBFA had invested state funds in so-called US "asset-backed commercial paper" based on sub-prime mortgages that had later plummeted in value. RH claimed losses from such investments alone had resulted in a loss of at least 380 million Euros by the end of last year.

Pröll promised earlier in the week "to optimise" ÖBFA’s risk management.

He and other recent finance ministers have been heavily criticised for their alleged tolerance of speculative investments by ÖBFA - which handles the Austrian state’s debt and investments and falls under the competence of the finance ministry.

Pröll also promised to create a committee of experts to come up with new guidelines for future ÖBFA investment. Weaknesses identified by RH, Pröll said, would be "relentlessly dealt with."

http://austriantimes.at/news/General_News/2009-07-23/14944/President_denounces_speculation_using_tax-payers%92_money

Other news:

Fischer would run as independent

"Austrian president Heinz Fischer has said he will stand as an independent candidate if he decides to run in next year’s elections. He was elected in 2004 after beating Benita Ferrero-Waldner. He had been nominated by the SPÖ at the time. His term ends next year and speculation has been growing over whether the 71-year-old will run for a second term. Fischer’s announcement has been seen by observers as an attempt to win over undecided voters who do not support the SPÖ. He recently said he was "happy” with his job, adding he would announce his decision in autumn to avoid a long campaign."

http://www.wienerzeitung.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=4082&Alias=WZO&cob=427199

[Tender Branson]

After the IFES poll (SPÖ-bias), which had the SPÖ overtaking the ÖVP for the first time since the EU elections (see above posts), the ÖVP is out with a new Fessel-GfK poll (ÖVP-bias):



The left column shows which party is the most competent in managing the economic crisis, the right shows the current voting intentions.

It's time for an independent institute to show who's really ahead ...

[Hash]

FPÖ falling back slightly?

[Tender Branson]

FPÖ falling back slightly?

Not really. It's more the BZÖ that is going down.

Notice that the previous Market poll, which had the FPÖ at 25% and the BZÖ at 6%, was conducted for the left-wing Standard newspaper, which probably publishes polls that are a bit too hysterical and to get headlines and publicity. 19% for the FPÖ seems about right though.

[Tender Branson]

VIENNA (AFP)--A senior Austrian far-right lawmaker was under fire Monday after calling for a referendum in an Italian region to decide whether it should unite with Austria.

Martin Graf, third vice-president in the Austrian parliament, had called in for a vote in South Tyrol to let its inhabitants decide whether it should belong to Italy or Austria.

"Whoever believes he can solve tomorrow's problems with yesterday's ideas is mistaken," said Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger, of Austria's conservative People's Party, cited by local media.

Spindelegger repeated an earlier call for Graf, of the far-right Freedom Party, to resign.

South Tyrol, in northern Italy, was originally a German-speaking area and part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

It was annexed by Italy after World War I and German and Italian are now both official languages.

The Social Democrats, the center-left partners of the People's Party in Austria's ruling coalition, backed the calls for Graf's resignation.

The president of South Tyrol Luis Durnwalder accused Graf of behaving irresponsibly.

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=200907271002dowjonesdjonline000339&title=austrian-politician-stirs-anger-with-call-for-s-tyrol-vote

Hypocritical as they are, SPÖVP is demanding Graf to step down, yet in Parliament - where they'd have the power to destroy Graf's career, they do nothing. They only "sane" party, opposed to Graf from the start, are the Greens ...

Not much needs to be said about this nazi @ss Graf, he's the Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin of Austria ...

[Хahar 🤔]

Why shouldn't the South Tyrol be granted self-determination?

[Tender Branson]

Why shouldn't the South Tyrol be granted self-determination?

Because they already have a far-reaching autonomy statute and the status-quo is perfectly fine.

Second, most South Tyrolians want to stay with Italy - according to recent polls.

Plus: The 3 South Tyrolian "Pro-Unification with Austria" Parties got only 22% together.

Currently I'd say it's:

40% Stay with Italy
35% Independent Country
25% Unification with Austria

South Tyrolian Gov. Luis Durnwalder (SVP) has also rejected Graf's idea about a referendum, but has also acknowledged that if the "referendum would be held in 6 months", there would probably be a majority in favor of unification with Austria after an intensive campaign.

Allthough if people there would be asked right away, people would favor the status quo he said, because people are happy with how things are going at the moment. South Tyrol is the richest region of Italy (131% of Italy's GDP/capita) and has the lowest unemployment in all of Italy (2% compared with 8% in Italy).

[Tender Branson]

Why shouldn't the South Tyrol be granted self-determination?

Plus: Austria's map would look awkward if South Tyrol is unified with the homeland.

Plus: The ÖVP would be the strongest party in almost all Austrian federal elections, because South Tyrol is a hardcore rightwing state (80% for the Center-Right in the last state elections in 2008).

[Hash]

The SVP leans centre-right but it's a big tent party for the vast majority of Germans. The only people who vote for the left are Italians.

[Tender Branson]

The SVP leans centre-right but it's a big tent party for the vast majority of Germans. The only people who vote for the left are Italians.

It's hard to say what percentage of the SVP would actually vote for Austria after an intensive campaign.

Yesterday, Gov. Durnwalder (SVP)  said in the Austrian TV show "ZIB2", that if a referendum would be held, he would vote for Austria himself.

I guess many of the SVP voters would follow suit, because Durnwalder remains highly popular in South Tyrol.

http://www.heute.at/news/politik/Suedtiroler-LH-Waere-fuer-Oesterreich;art422,83323

[Bono]

A referendum, how dare he! Fascist!

Didn't he listen to Javier Solana saying referendums are undemocratic?

[Tender Branson]

First independent Gallup poll for Ö24, after the investment-scandal:

ÖVP: 32%
SPÖ: 30%
FPÖ: 18%
Greens: 13%
BZÖ: 5%
Others: 2%

[Tender Branson]

Latest Market poll for the newspaper "Der Standard":

ÖVP: 32%
SPÖ: 27%
FPÖ: 22%
Greens: 9%
BZÖ: 7%
Others: 3%

[Tender Branson]

New SORA poll for the Sept. 27 Upper Austria State Election:



(numbers in grey = 2003 state election results)

Majority for the current ÖVP-Green government.

[Tender Branson]

2 new federal polls out today:

Karmasin/Profil:

ÖVP: 31%
SPÖ: 31%
FPÖ: 21%
Greens: 10%
BZÖ: 6%
Others: 1%

http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20090808_OTS0004

Gallup/Ö24:

ÖVP: 33%
SPÖ: 30%
FPÖ: 18%
Greens: 12%
BZÖ: 6%
Others: 1%

http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20090808_OTS0015

[Tender Branson]

Latest Gallup/Ö24 poll for the 2010 Presidential Elections:

Heinz Fischer (SPÖ/IND): 50%
Erwin Pröll (ÖVP): 24%
Alexander Van der Bellen (Greens): 8%
Claudia Haider (BZÖ): 4%
Martin Graf (FPÖ): 3%

http://www.oe24.at/oesterreich/politik/Hartes-Match-ums-erste-Amt-0510030.ece

FPÖ-leader H.C. Strache has already said that active politicians like Graf won't run and that he wants a more liberal, popular, experienced and (uncontroversial) retired politician like Siegfried Dillersberger to run, who was Mayor of the Tyrolian city of Kufstein in the 70s and 80s, member of the Tyrolian state parliament, an Austrian MP in the 80s and 3rd Parliamentary President in 1990.

Currently, 32% of FPÖ-voters are supporting President Fischer for re-election.