At the end of September Austrians elected a new parliament. For the first time ever the most votes received Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (Freedom Party of Austria, FPÖ). This result gave the far right 57 out of 183 seats in Austrian parliament, rising a question, whatever we have to face yet another fundamental threat to democracy in Europe.
As part of the “Protecting European Values” project, which is co-funded by the European Commission, on the 1st and 2nd October, KEW organised a study visit to Vienna. Our experts: Zsuzsanna Vegh, Anais Marin and Adam Balcer assisted by Gabriela Rzepka had the opportunity to talk to local experts about the political developments in Austria.
On the 1st of October KEW experts met Matthias Lorenz, a political theorist from the University of Vienna. Our interlocutor stressed that even when people still get shocked about the result of the far-right party, there is no more mobilisation in the society to act against it, like it used to be at the begging of the 21st century. He stressed that after the elections FPÖ might gain even more political strength regardless of being in the government or in the opposition.
“I am not surprised, yet the result is shocking” said Ruth Wodak, Emerita Distinguished Professor of Discourse Studies at Lancaster University. Ms Wodak pointed out that reusing a Nazi genre is being normalised and neither the government nor civil society undertook sufficient actions against that. She argued that NGOs focusing on threats to democracy and their campaigns were not visible enough, especially for young people to actually influence the election results. Finally, according to Ms Wodak “There is a huge gap in education. The government has not invested enough in education”.
The next day started with a meeting with Victoria Huegel, postdoctoral researcher in a field of political theories. Asked about the most important topics for the Austrian political scene after the elections, she mentioned especially the issue of migration, with the “remigration” rhetoric postulated by the far right and widely accepted or at least tolerated by the society. She also compared German and Austrian societies underlining the notable difference between them being the level of acceptance of Nazi or post-Nazi vocabulary and gestures. In Germany, despite the rise of far right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the Nazi genre is strongly condemned in the mainstream.
The last meeting was with Philipp Ther, Austrian and German social historian, professor at the University of Vienna. He stated that the current result of the far right should be explained by the disappointment of the society from the former governing parties. Mr Ther also argued that the frustration which resulted in FPÖ winning the elections was growing for years, and the electorate of extremists is strongly rooted in Austrian social fabric (“post-Nazi families”). On the other hand, the leftists became more bourgeois, more academic, and less electable for the lower, working class as it used to be originally. At the same time the conservatists became more populistic and nationalistic and themselves being one of the biggest forces in Austrian parliament makes the whole political scene strongly shifted to the right.
