The 2012 Austrian Election Interlude: The rise of Frank Stronach and more ...

[Verily]

The OVP and FPO formed a coalition from 1999-2002. The OVP led the coalition despite coming third in the popular vote (barely), although OVP and FPO had the same number of seats. The FPO vote collapsed in 2002; the key to loosening their grip on the youth vote is probably to have them in government again.

[Tender Branson]

The OVP and FPO formed a coalition from 1999-2002. The OVP led the coalition despite coming third in the popular vote (barely), although OVP and FPO had the same number of seats. The FPO vote collapsed in 2002; the key to loosening their grip on the youth vote is probably to have them in government again.

Which would be bad for the future development of the country. The FPÖ needs to stay in opposition, because the FPÖ in government means moving backwards and is followed by massive incompetence and corruption.

As the Green MP Kogler recently said: If the FPÖ enters the next government, the Greens will look to assign 3 corruption attorneys for each FPÖ minister to clean up the mess they are producing ...

[Tender Branson]

Even the Spiegel is now reporting about the 1st place of the FPÖ and has a nice graphic:



http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,763834,00.html

[Tender Branson]

There's also a new OGM trust index, which is the saldo of "having trust" and "having no trust" in various politicians:

President Heinz Fischer (SPÖ): 73% trust, 18% no trust (+55)

Chancellor Werner Faymann (SPÖ): 50% trust, 41% no trust (+9)

Vice-Chancellor Michael Spindelegger (ÖVP): 42% trust, 28% no trust (+14)

Eva Glawischnig (Green Party leader): 39% trust, 45% no trust (-6)

Heinz-Christian Strache (FPÖ leader): 32% trust, 54% no trust (-22)

Josef Bucher (BZÖ leader): 30% trust, 44% no trust (-14)

http://www.ogm.at/pdfs/BundespolitikerInnen_Mai11.pdf

...

Plus: Currently, the ÖVP convention in Innsbruck is taking place, in which the new ÖVP boss Michael Spindelegger is currently holding his speech and later he will be voted in as new chairman. It will be interesting to see what percentage of approval he gets from the delegates. I guess he will be backed by 95-99% of the delegates. Will post the results later.

http://oevp.at/index.aspx?pageid=37421

[Insula Dei]

The OVP and FPO formed a coalition from 1999-2002. The OVP led the coalition despite coming third in the popular vote (barely), although OVP and FPO had the same number of seats. The FPO vote collapsed in 2002; the key to loosening their grip on the youth vote is probably to have them in government again.

Also, in response to the question, in 1999 there was a riot about the FPÖ taking place in a coalition government and the backlash it created troughout the EU, but today most EU nations themselves have egg on their faces, as evidenced by the EU's silence on the de facto presence of Wilders in the Dutch government.

[Hash]

The Falangists won 39% in Spain last time around, yet they're not on the map. The Generalissimo and his sidekick Fraga would be pissed to see all their hard work not recognized.

[Tender Branson]

The map is also a bit faulty when it comes to FPÖ and BZÖ.

They say that the FPÖ represents 17.5% of seats in the parliament and the BZÖ 9.2%, but in reality there are 183 seats in parliament, of which 57 seats belong to the SPÖ (31.1%), 51 seats for the ÖVP (27.9%), 37 seats for the FPÖ (20.2%), 20 seats for the Greens (10.9%), 17 seats for the BZÖ (9.3%) and 1 Independent Ex-BZÖ member (0.6%).

http://www.parlinkom.gv.at/WWER/SITZPLAN/sitzplan2Nr.pdf

They have mixed up election results from the FPÖ and seat percentages from the BZÖ.

[Tender Branson]

Spindelegger was just elected as the new ÖVP boss with 95.5% of the roughly 500 delegates.

The 4 deputies are:

Andrea Kaufmann (97.3%)
Maria Fekter (96.9%)
Reinhold Mitterlehner (95.1%)
Niki Berlakovich (93.7%)

[Tender Branson]

Austrians are sharply opposed to a planned second bailout package for the Greeks if the 1st package should not be enough, according to the OGM poll for the Kurier:



26% Favor
60% Oppose

Only 7% of FPÖ voters support another bailout package, while 57% of Green voters do.

Only 1/5 with lower education support the package, while 47% with a high school or university degree would support another package.

http://kurier.at/mmedia/2011.05.20/13059059551_5.jpg

[Tender Branson]

Birth rate crawls up

There have been more births in Austria in 2010 than in the previous year, it has been announced.

Statistik Austria said today (Fri) that 78,742 babies came into the world in the country last year, 3.1 per cent more than in 2009.

Capital city Vienna recorded the most significant increase with 4.9 per cent ahead of Salzburg (plus 4.6 per cent). The number of births rose in all nine Austrian provinces. The eastern region of Burgenland registered the slightest increase at 0.1 per cent.

Statistics also show that women were an average 30.1 years old when they gave birth for the first time.

The annual number of births resembles the number of people who died in Austria in 2010. Statistik Austria announced that 77,199 citizens died last year. This is a decrease of 0.2 per cent compared to 2009.

The life expectancy of Austrian women ranges around 83.2 years while an age of 77.7 years has been identified for the country’s male population.

Around 8.4 million people are currently living in Austria.

http://austrianindependent.com/news/General_News/2011-05-20/7615/Birth_rate_crawls_up

Vienna – About 8.404 million people were living in Austria on 1 January 2011 according to the final results of Statistics Austria, an increase of 28 962 people (+0.3%) in relation to the beginning of 2010.

The population growth was mainly due to a positive balance of international migration (+27 695 people) and to a small extent due to a natural population increase (+1 543 people). This growth was significantly higher than in the year before (2009: +20 030 people).

The number of foreign citizens in 2010 rose by 32 468 to 927 612, with their share in total population increasing to 11.0% (+0.3%).

http://www.statistik.at/web_en/press/056448

In the first quarter of 2011, births have increased again by 2.3%, so we might have more than 80.000 births again this year - for the first time in more than 10 years.

http://www.statistik.at/web_en/press/056264

[Tender Branson]

Gallup still has the SPÖ a single point ahead of the FPÖ, but Gallup notes that the FPÖ is about to overtake the SPÖ because the FPÖ is stronger and stronger in the raw data, which means declared supporters. Gallup surveyed 800 Austrians between May 19 and 20:



Direct vote for Chancellor:

24% Faymann (SPÖ)
21% Spindelegger (ÖVP)
17% Strache (FPÖ)

http://www.oe24.at/oesterreich/politik/SPOe-haelt-Platz-1-nur-hauchduenn/28402406

[Franzl]

The rise of the far right in Austria is troubling.

[Tender Branson]

The rise of the far right in Austria is troubling.

The German newspaper "Zeit Online" has a new article about the FPÖ called "Heinz Christian Strache - Rise of a Hate Preacher":

http://pdf.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2011-05/fpoe-oesterreich-umfragen.pdf

Meanwhile, there's a new Market poll out for "Der Standard":

27% FPÖ
27% SPÖ
23% ÖVP
23% Others (not mentioned in the article)

This is the highest rating for the FPÖ so far in a Market poll for Standard newspaper.

[Tender Branson]

Right-winger resigns over 'Blood and Honour' tattoo

A right-wing politician has stepped down after a dispute considering a tattoo.

Carinthian Freedom Party (FPK) Councillor Gerry Leitmann announced today (Tues) he informed Franz Felsberger, the Social Democratic (SPÖ) mayor of Ebenthal, Carinthia, about his decision to resign yesterday.

Leitmann came under fire by political rivals for a tattoo saying "Blut und Ehre" (Blood and Honour) on his upper arm. Town Hall delegates saw the slogan when Leitmann turned up short-sleeved for a meeting last week. "Blut und Ehre" was the slogan and motto of the Nazis’ Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth). The term has been used by neo-Nazis and fascists ever since.

Local FPK officials acknowledged Leitmann’s decision to step down over the controversy. They argued it was the right move to spare the party from suffering in reputation. Judicial experts said today Leitmann – who promised to have the tattoo removed – could be prosecuted for breaching the federal anti-Nazi mindset law. Citizens face fines and jail terms for spreading or supporting Nazi propaganda under the bylaw which is considered being one of the most stringent in the world.

The FPK was founded by former Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) members in Carinthia last year. The decision to set the faction up was preceded by a severe party-internal rift at the BZÖ which was established by late Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Jörg Haider in 2005.

http://austrianindependent.com/news/Politics/2011-05-31/7746/Right-winger_resigns_over_%27Blood_and_Honour%27_tattoo

[Iannis]

The Falangists won 39% in Spain last time around, yet they're not on the map. The Generalissimo and his sidekick Fraga would be pissed to see all their hard work not recognized.

Sure, and the godless communist/anarchist the 43%, so we need a liberation war! Wake up! we are in 2011!!

[MaxQue]

The Falangists won 39% in Spain last time around, yet they're not on the map. The Generalissimo and his sidekick Fraga would be pissed to see all their hard work not recognized.

Sure, and the godless communist/anarchist the 43%, so we need a liberation war! Wake up! we are in 2011!!

But the PP never really condemned Falangism.

[Iannis]

The Falangists won 39% in Spain last time around, yet they're not on the map. The Generalissimo and his sidekick Fraga would be pissed to see all their hard work not recognized.

Sure, and the godless communist/anarchist the 43%, so we need a liberation war! Wake up! we are in 2011!!

But the PP never really condemned Falangism.

I think that PP has already demonstrated its democratic level, in any occasion, and Zapatero himself recognizes this.
I think that these arguments, democracy, populist parties seen as antidemocratic, are just a mass distraction for dumb people, what should i.e. FPO and Lega Nord demonstrate to be considered "normal" democratic parties, given that they have been already in power without any traumatic consequence?
 

[Tender Branson]

3 more negative stories for the FPÖ today:

Barbara Rosenkranz, failed FPÖ presidential candidate from last year, is promoting this year's midsummer festival with an invitation card that is almost entirely a copy from a page of the NAZI book "Vorweihnachten 1942" (Pre-Christmas 1942) from the NAZI author Hans Baumann.

The original from the NAZI book and the invitation card sent out from Rosenkranz:



The annual FPÖ midsummer festivals btw are meetings in secluded woods where FPÖ people are partying around bonfires and singing NAZI songs ...

http://derstandard.at/1304553257099/Niederoesterreich-Sonnwendfeier-Einladung-mit-Anleihen-aus-Nazibuch

...

In another story that came out yesterday, another FPÖ city council member from Linz (Upper Austria) has been "outed" by other council members wearing a tatoo with "Ehre-Treue-Vaterland" ("Honour-Loyalty-Homeland").

http://derstandard.at/1304553441843/Tattoo-FPOe-Mandatar-traegt-Ehre-Treue-Vaterland-am-Bauch

...

And in the third, a Vienna FPÖ city council member who was holding a speech was interrupted by a Turkish-born Green MP.

He then said to the Green MP:

"You are superficially able to speak German, so you can talk later. You have come to OUR country to live here, so let me complete speaking and then you can talk."

http://www.kleinezeitung.at/nachrichten/politik/2756101/fpoe-verbalattacke-gegen-wiener-gruen-mandatar.story

[Tender Branson]

There's a new OGM poll out which asks Austrians if they want to keep the Euro or want the former currency, Schilling, back:



FPÖ voters are strongly backing a Schilling comeback, by 55-34.

http://kurier.at/nachrichten/3910812.php

[Franzl]

Well that's good because there's no way out.

[Tender Branson]

OGM has also polled the next preferred coalition government:

[Tender Branson]

New poll for "Profil" magazine:

Do you favor or oppose that gay couples in Austria have the right to adopt children ?

50% Favor
39% Oppose
10% Undecided

http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20110528_OTS0008/profil-umfrage-50-prozent-der-oesterreicher-befuerworten-adoptionsrecht-fuer-homosexuelle

Currently, gays in Austria can register Civil Unions, but not adopt children.

[Jackson]

Why do you elect open fascists Austria?

[Franzl]

Why do you elect open fascists Austria?

I think it's always been in their blood

[Antonio the Sixth]

The Falangists won 39% in Spain last time around, yet they're not on the map. The Generalissimo and his sidekick Fraga would be pissed to see all their hard work not recognized.

Sure, and the godless communist/anarchist the 43%, so we need a liberation war! Wake up! we are in 2011!!

But the PP never really condemned Falangism.

I think that PP has already demonstrated its democratic level, in any occasion, and Zapatero himself recognizes this.
I think that these arguments, democracy, populist parties seen as antidemocratic, are just a mass distraction for dumb people, what should i.e. FPO and Lega Nord demonstrate to be considered "normal" democratic parties, given that they have been already in power without any traumatic consequence?

"Without any traumatic consequence" ? You're joking, right ?