Anti-migrant, anti-Islam FPÖ could emerge as most voted for party in Sunday’s parliamentary poll
After winning the EU elections in June, Austria’s far-right Freedom party (FPÖ) seized the moment, calling for the appointment of a EU “remigration” commissioner to be tasked with the forced return of migrants and citizens with a migration background to their countries of origin.
The muted reaction that followed was a sharp contrast to Germany, where months earlier, allegations that members of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) had attended a meeting at which they discussed remigration dominated headlines and prompted tens of thousands to take to the streets in protest.
The difference was not lost on Farid Hafez, a senior researcher at Georgetown University. In Austria, “there was no outcry,” he said. “This is the normalisation of racism that the far right has achieved and that has become a very normal part of daily Austrian politics.”
As someone who lives in Austria and happens to have immigrant roots (parents came here in the early 90ies)
The rise of the far right is partly due to the incompetence of the other parties.
The social democrats are almost non existent when it comes to political topics of any sort.
The “greens” (mostly left) turned out to be kissasses with whomever they coalition with.
And the removed-of-the-riches (that’s literally how they called themselves) well… they only act in the interest of the wealthiest.
So, “normal” people have almost no sane option to vote for, and some even go as far as to vote the far-rights as an act of demonstration.
Sure, there are other small parties to vote for, but at the end, they might get 3% all together, because they just din’t have the budget to advertise themselves strong enough, like the big ones do.
I really wish people would look at it in this lens more. I think this is a big part of why we’re see this same issue in many developed countries. Like, yes. Xenophobia and racism is a part of it, but the other, more actionable part of it is that all of our viable political options have turned into technocrats who have used their political and economic expertise to fatten the richest people, and largest, most profitable industries at the expense of the poor for decades. This reality has bred resentment, distrust, and disinterest in politics, especially of political moderates and “status quo” politicians. All major left-wing opposition has been suppressed, or neutered, and as a result the only truly “oppositional” seeming politics come from far right nut jobs and they end up being the release valve for the political frustration. People can only hear “the economy is doing great”, while watching their children struggle to afford even a modest standard of living (by the standards we’ve come to expect) for so long before they become desperate for a significant change.