The absent Europe?

What’s happening to Austria? The final results of the parliamentary elections on 28 September show a dramatic situation: the two “former big parties”, Övp (People’s Party) and Spö (Social-Democratic Party), obtained the lowest share of the votes they had ever registered since 1945: 29.3% for the Spö and 26% for the Övp. The two populist parties of the right, Fpö (Freedom Party) and Bzö (Future Alliance of Austria), together amassed 28.2% of the vote. In Austria, the fact that the Fpö and Bzö were the most voted parties especially among young electors (below the age of 30) is cause for thought. But this does not mean that a high percentage of Austrian youth belong to right-wing extremism or that the shadows of the dark past of the 20th century are lengthening once again. One Austrian journalist has furnished a very persuasive analysis of the electorate of the two populist parties of the right: a third of the young electors of the Fpö and Bzö are, he said, “disco electors”, youth who go to the discotheque every weekend. The Fpö and Bzö party leaders, who in spite of their advanced age have adopted a deliberately youthful look, exactly correspond to the image of these youngsters, even down to the brand of the jeans they wear. Another third of the electors consist of so-called “protest voters”: these, like many other older voters, have had enough of the old Austrian politics of the “partitocracy”, with its collusion with the state and para-state apparatus (of course a lot has changed over the last ten years, but the repercussions of the decades-long “two-party totalitarianism”, as it has been ironically defined by a distinguished Austrian politician, are still being felt). The last third of young electors of the Fpö and Bzö consist, in turn, of the “hard core” of right-wing populism. To understand the result of the Austrian elections, three aspects need to be taken into account:1) Austria is a small country. The memory of the great Austria of the past has completely faded and is cultivated only in intellectual circles. Although living standards in Austria are very high and life in this small country is very agreeable, widespread fears do exist. It is just these fears that are exploited by the populist parties of the right. Austrian policy, in part absurd, in the field of immigration and asylum belongs to this context. In recent years, the Spö and Övp have promptly caved in to the demands of the populists of the right: but clearly the electorate have not rewarded them for these concessions. 2) In Austria, too, we are witnessing the disintegration of the solid party system of the past. According to one theory, some political developments are manifested earlier in Italy than in other countries. This could also apply to the dissolution of the traditional party system, based on ideologies. A new type of party is developing in which views about how society should be organized no longer exist. The Fpö and Bzö correspond in part to parties of this type.3) In political discussion and during the electoral campaign there was a lot of talk about euroscepticism (which is all the more curious if we consider that Austria is one of the countries that have most benefited from EU enlargement). In the decision of electors, however, this aspect had practically no influence: opinion polls showed that the debate on the EU, conducted in the media, was of little interest to voters. It is difficult to predict how the situation will evolve. As expected, the Federal President, Heinz Fischer, has given the head of the Social Democratic party, Werner Faymann, the job of forming the new government. In doing so, the Federal President underlined with absolute clarity that the new government must do everything in its power to ensure that Austria acts as a “reliable partner in the EU”. But it remains to be seen whether Faymann will be able to put together a viable coalition with the Övp (while many voices are being raised in support of a role in opposition).