Austria Poised To Elect Far-right Leader as Europe Braces for More Political Earthqua

LONDON —
The U.S. election victory of Donald Trump was warmly welcomed by far-right politicians across the globe — nowhere more so than in Europe, where a series of upcoming polls could deliver big shocks to established political parties.

First up is Austria on December 4, where Norbert Hofer is hoping to ride a global wave of insurgent populism to win the Austrian presidency and become the first far-right head of state in Europe since World War II.

Speaking this month, he borrowed a key theme from Trump's campaign, saying that that whenever the elites distance themselves from voters, those elites will be voted out of office.


Connecting globally

Hofer's far-right Freedom Party has warned of a civil war over migration. His extreme rhetoric is winning votes; polls give him a slim lead over his rival, the Green Party's Alexander Van der Bellen. European historian Andrea Mammone of Royal Holloway, University of London, said the far right is connecting globally.

"Politicians are playing with these fears," Mammone said. "They are actually offering a new model of identification. And this model of identification is going back. Going back to golden lands. Even if they never existed."


'Campaigns of fear'

In France, Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front, has promised to turn back the clock to the days before the European Union and global free trade. She says Britain's vote to leave the EU and Trump's victory have given her momentum.

"The British and the American people dismissed these patronizing campaigns, these campaigns of fear," she told reporters this week, adding: "I'm convinced that the French people can, too."

France's two-round election system has so far kept the far right out of power. But 2016 has shown that past voting patterns are a poor guide to modern politics, Mammone said.

"Many people are feeling that maybe it is worth voting for these protest movements because this vote might eventually count, and this vote may eventually change things, or at least this vote may eventually shake power," Mammone said.


Connection to Putin

Critics point to a common ally of the far right on both sides of the Atlantic: Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian banks have given Le Pen multimillion-dollar loans to fight her campaign.

"Putin is willing to fund all these far-right movements because they cannot only make pressure in the European Union context, but I think that it is also a matter of, in national societies, what they can say about Russia," Mammone said.

That sympathy for Moscow is echoed by the political opposition in Italy, which smells victory in a referendum scheduled December 4 on constitutional change, a result that could topple Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

In the Netherlands, the far-right Freedom Party tops the polls ahead of 2017 elections, despite the ongoing trial of its leader, Geert Wilders, on charges of inciting racial hatred.

For now, all eyes are on Austria, which could deliver the first of a series of electoral earthquakes in Europe.

Austria Poised to Elect Rightist as Europe Braces for More Political Earthquakes

Quote:

---

Putin is willing to fund all these far-right movements

---

:rofl:

I'm calling BS on that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Neverna

Quote:

---

Putin is willing to fund all these far-right movements

---

:rofl:

I'm calling BS on that.

---

I might call that out, as well.

Remember the source [VOA].
Wouldn't be outta realm of expectations - it's what they do.

Austria has been far right as long as it has been Austria. Periodically, it actually has a leader representing its innate fascism and bigotry but usually it just keeps its support of Der Fuhrer under wraps. It should be noted that the country is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention.
Discerning some sort of global trend on the basis of Austrian fascism is idiotic - it has never been anything other than a nazi society.

Certainly 'Austria goes far right' is about as accurate as 'buriram boy loses smooth way with laydeez'.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

Austria has been far right as long as it has been Austria. Periodically, it actually has a leader representing its innate fascism and bigotry but usually it just keeps its support of Der Fuhrer under wraps. It should be noted that the country is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention.
Discerning some sort of global trend on the basis of Austrian fascism is idiotic - it has never been anything other than a nazi society.

---

1951 a Great Year !!
British imperialism in the Middle East came to and end. Better yet, the British Empire came to an end. :rolleyes:

Far Right’s Hofer Defeated in Austria Election

VIENNA —
Austria’s anti-immigrant candidate, Norbert Hofer, has failed in his bid to become the country’s first far right leader since World War Two, in an election seen as a test for the strength of populist movements in Europe.

Hofer’s campaign said the former aeronautical engineer, who campaigned on an anti-immigrant, Euroskeptic platform, conceded defeat to his environmentalist opponent, Alexander Van Der Bellen, who ran as an independent.

“The bottom line is it did not quite work out,” said Herbert Kickl, Hofer’s campaign manager. “In this case, the establishment, which pitched in once again to block, to stonewall, and to prevent renewal, has won,” Kickl said to Austrian broadcaster ORF after results were released Sunday.

Final official results were expected later Sunday but projections had Van Der Bellen beating Hofer by 53 to 46 percent.

Analysts said that while the margin of victory appeared to be wide, a strong showing by those who oppose or at least question Austria’s immigration policies cannot be ignored by the new leadership.

The outcome was despite a campaign dominated by anti-establishment sentiments and anger over issues of Muslim immigration, the financial burden of refugees and migrants who are collecting benefits from Austria's welfare system, and Europe's wave of terrorist attacks over the last year following the start of the migrant crisis.

Voters on Sunday lamented the bitter divisions that the race exposed.

“This election in general is tragic,” said Eva, a voter who cast her ballot in Vienna’s first district on Sunday. “It’s very tragic because we were having another person, Hofer, who speaks more for the old way of thinking, of pushing people against each other and is more in a rightist direction, in a Fascist direction, like Hitler.”

Sunday's poll was held after the results of earlier vote on May 22 had Van Der Bellen ahead of Hofer by 31,000 votes. Austria’s constitutional court annulled the results due to vote-counting irregularities.

The campaign, one of Austria’s longest, was marked by anger.

A newspaper headline described it as an “Election of Hate,” reflecting pent-up frustrations among Hofer’s rightist supporters and fear and bitterness among his leftist detractors who have labeled him a Nazi for his anti-immigration stance in the face of Europe’s migrant crisis that saw more than a million refugees and migrants enter Europe last year, many of them through Austria.


Voters who changed their minds

Analysts say Hofer sought to benefit from the anti-establishment mood sweeping across the U.S. and Europe that has been partly inspired by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and the victory of Donald Trump in the United States.

The trend perplexed Florian, a voter in central Vienna.

“Even though this is the most peaceful time ever and people have the most money ever, there seems to be an uncertainty and that’s why they are prone to fall for the promises that the rightist movements give,” Florian said after casting his ballot Sunday.

More than 90,000 people applied for asylum in Austria last year, a figure that causes concern in a nation whose population is less than 9 million.

The sentiments have also been fomented by terror attacks in Belgium and France – all of which have happened since the start of last year’s migrant crisis.

“Even though you’re scared, you cannot look away and say ‘ok, we don’t want to do have anything to do with this.’ We have a history in Austria regarding this and that’s why I think we have the responsibility to stand up together with the rest of the world and if they don’t go along, we have to lead as an example,” Florian, a Van Der Bellen supporter, said.
Hofer’s campaign posters across central Vienna were defaced with swastikas and mustaches that made Hofer resemble Adolf Hitler.

The Nazi connotation was especially sensitive given Austria’s history in the last century. The country was the birthplace of Hitler and was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938.

Hofer’s Freedom Party was founded in the 1950s by former members of Hitler’s National Socialist party, but its current members deny any ideological connection to the Third Reich, and deny they are racist or anti-Semitic.

Hofer’s younger supporters include members of Austria’s Identitarian movement, a group that opposes multiculturalism. 27-year-old Martin Sellner, a member, said his opposition to Muslim immigration is based on concerns that Muslims may eventually outnumber native Austrians and overwhelm their culture, and not on xenophobia or racism.

He protests any comparison between Hofer and Hitler.

“The only argument the multi-culturalist elite and left (have) is everyone is like Hitler. Farage is like Hitler, Trump is like Hitler, Hofer is like Hitler and they want to make this an election between Van Der Bellen and the new Hitler and this argument isn’t working anymore,” Sellner said. People are fed up with this kind of propaganda,” he said.

Far Right?s Hofer Defeated in Austria Election

The uniforms and jackboots will have to be left hidden in the attics.
A good day for Austria. A bad day for fascists in Europe.