Austria is getting a new coalition government without the far-right election winner
Austria is getting a new coalition government without the far-right election winner
Three parties say they have reached a deal to form a new centrist Austrian government, five months after an election was won by a far-right party that later failed in an attempt to form an administration.
Yeah, and now we have the party of conservatives that never lead any positive change, the fossilised socialists that kinda forgot they're supposed to make stuff better for non-business owners and the "modern" economists that want to privatise everything.
Idk guys, but the choices here currently are between a new hitler or the same shit that caused the rise of our new hitler in the first place.
The only sane person in our government is our federal president, which is soon up for election again, where the far right will have a good chance of winning, because people here are mostly misinformed and full of hate.
At least van der Bellen has demonstrated many times now that the president is absolutely crucial in keeping democracy working.
True. He also demonstrated how absolutely radicalised the FPÖ are, by assigning them the contract to form a government and then having them fail because they refuse to compromise with anyone.
It's a bit sad that most of the wins we can celebrate recently are basically "narrowly avoiding a far-right triumph" but hey, I'll take it. Happy for Austria. Hope the new government can show competent leadership.
I’m afraid those centrist governments are just kicking can down the road and we’ll be getting less lucky as time goes on.
In Germany, the resurgence of Die Linke (a hard-left party who reject the prevailing wisdom that there is organic demand for far-right policies and the way to beat the fash is by stealing their policies and presenting them in a more acceptable form) at a time when the Social Democrats (who did exactly that) lost votes may be a beacon of hope.
Sobs in Netherlands. Thanks Yesilgöz
Like for any country with a "cordon sanitaire" as we call it in Belgium, this coalition now needs to address the fundamental reason motivating people to vote for the far right. If they fail to do so, the far right will gain points elections after elections until they reach the outright majority.
The problem is social media. It amplifies certain problems so they look worse than they seem and also manufacturers ones that don't exist at all all to promote far right.
And this isn't a coincidence. This is purposefully astroturfed by Russia. Notice that most of far right groups (all?) strangely are pro Russia.
And yes, there are actual issues they exploit, but they blame them on immigrants, LGBT, woke, whatever when the real cause why it is getting worse is corruption and disappearance of a middle class.
As an Austrian I completely agree with you... but at the same time a sad chuckle escaped my throat.
We all know they won't.
People keep saying this but never provide a solution. Restricting immigration does not work. Adopting far right policies does not work. The far right gets stronger because of misinformation, social media and the ongoing economic downturn in western nations. This is not something that can be fixed by one government alone.
Those don't work because these issues are not the actual reasons for far right votes. Wealth inequality is. Your kids not having it better than you anymore is. Rising cost of living and stagnating wages are. Right wing voters see these issues and blame them on immigrants, but fixing them with strong progressive policies and actually improving living situations for the majority would go a long way in reducing those numbers.
It's just that conservatives don't want to do that because it would cost their donors money.
You pivot left. You give in to the left. You become leftist. Liberalism cannot cope with fascism.
Not a policymaker but I'd guess the cause of the far right appeal is linked to
- Growing inequalities, enrichment of the richest, and trickle up
- Unchecked power of big tech and media companies like GAFAM, X, and traditional media being centralized in ownership.
Both can be tackled by regulations at the EU level.
Edit: actually, centralization/monopolization seems on the rise, no? Be it tech, media, food, transportation...
Article about how the Danish left appeased the far right https://t.co/stX8vPkgn4