#austrian elections

[austrian-government]

Sign this to at least feel slightly better about this fucking shitshow. (Note: you have to confirm your signature via the email link or it doesn't count)

[juliamccartney]

austrian national elections

first results:

# 1 far-right party (FPÖ)

# 2 conservative party (ÖVP)

# 3 social democrats (SPÖ)

[quecksilvereyes]

in the same way as the last post: fellow austrians, we are voting on september 29th. fpö is projected to be the party getting the most votes and if they do they will definitely pair up with the övp and make everyone's life miserable. (like. uhhhhhh lowering the age of criminal responsibility down from 14 bc ohhhhh scary migrant children with knives. thats just the last thing i saw.)

so. please. for the love of anything. if you're an austrian citizen. go vote. if you have a favourite politican or someone really appeals to you, you can give them a vorzugsstimme by putting their name in the box next to the party name. you can apply for a wahlkarte if you're not near your voting station at the time of the election. if you don't send it off in time, you can also bring it to any polling station on the day of the election.

wahlrechner.at doesn't have an option for the nationalratswahl yet but afaik, they will.

[cowswineandtea]

Shit.

[i-did-not-mean-to]

Just a little PSA.

You’re not alone. If you need anything, reach out a hand!

Lots of love and hugs from me. ❤️❤️❤️

[ghostyclay]

You know that your hyperfixation is getting bad when ur drawing random people to practice, but sth feels weirdly familiar about one of them, u just can't put ur finger on it

And then u suddenly realize, you accidentally drew joe hills from nashville tennessee, holding up communist propaganda, without even realizing it

(sketch below)

[feuer-bluete]

me @ austria: not surprised but still disappointed

[mysynonym]

anyone wanna go and cry together?

[icyplatinum]

Nazis getting first place by quite a bit this election. A sad day for Austrian democracy and another proof that humans are incapable of learning.

This is the same party that bankrupted an entire federal state and is involved in countless corruption scandals and Wiederbetätigung trials.

(If anyone thinks I‘m using the term Nazi lightly please note that just yesterday high ranking party officials have been sued cause they sang SS-songs at a funeral)

[milkywayan]

österreich was geht mit dir?!?!?!?!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Deborah Cole and Ashifa Kassam at The Guardian:

Austria’s main parties are preparing to begin tense wrangling to form a government amid warnings about the country’s democracy after the far right’s watershed victory in a general election in which angry voters punished centrist incumbents over migration and inflation. On Sunday, the anti-Islam, Kremlin-friendly Freedom party (FPÖ) scored its strongest result since its founding after the second world war by former Nazi functionaries and SS officers with just over 29% of the vote. The outcome surpassed expectations and beat the ruling centre-right People’s party (ÖVP) by nearly three percentage points. The centre-left opposition Social Democratic party (SPÖ) turned in its worst-ever performance with 21% while the Greens, junior partners in government, sank to 8%. Exit polls showed that the 13-point gain for the FPÖ since the last parliamentary election in 2019 came thanks to strong support among younger voters. Amid deep frustration with the cost of living and angst about immigration, the hard right clearly won among Austrians under 34 with 27% of that demographic, and even more decisively with the 35-to-59 set on 37%. The FPÖ profited as well from festering resentment over Austria’s strict measures during the Covid pandemic.

The FPÖ, which cites Hungary’s Viktor Orbán as a model, placed only third with over-60s on 22%. Instead, they gave their support to the ÖVP of the chancellor, Karl Nehammer, with 38%, and the SPÖ on 24%. Austria has often faced criticism about its tepid culture of historical remembrance of the Nazi period, long casting itself as the Nazis’ “first victim” despite its enthusiastic welcome of the Anschluss in 1938 by native son Adolf Hitler. In the wake of Sunday’s results, the International Auschwitz Committee, representing survivors of the Nazi extermination camp from 19 countries, denounced an “alarming new chapter” in Austria. Its vice-president, Christoph Heubner, said they were placing their faith in the “common ground among Austria’s democrats” to “stand up to historical amnesia and the ideology of old and new rightwing extremists … in the interest of the country and Europe”.

[...] Despite its resounding win, the FPÖ, which calls for a “Fortress Austria” against migration and “remigration” or forced deportations of unwanted foreigners, will face an uphill battle to form a government as it failed to secure an absolute majority. All of the smaller parties have ruled out any cooperation with the hard right. The ÖVP, which has worked with the rightwing populists several times at national and regional level, would be a potential partner but has called a government led by polarising FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl a dealbreaker.

In Austria’s election this weekend, the far-right FPO won the most seats but not an absolute majority.

[austrian-government]

Nützlicher kleiner Guide bzgl. der österreichischen Nationalratswahl am 29. September (an der sich bittedanke alle Wahlberechtigten beteiligen werden! Bitte!)

Ich finde prinzipiell, dass man die Partei wählen sollte, der man inhaltlich am nächsten steht. Aber: auch wer unentschlossen ist, kann sich mit einer Stimme für die SPÖ - egal, was man von ihr hält - zumindest gegen die FPÖ einsetzen. Was unser gemeinsames Ziel sein sollte!!!

[juliamccartney]

oh thank god at least the social democrats are #1 in my city & my district

[anakinh]

if i wake up tomorrow and the election hasn't been called i demand recompense. destiel kiss.

[104grandprixwinnerlewishamilton]

FPÖ (the far-right party) in Austria just won with nearly 30%

[nicklloydnow]

“Donald trump should have seen it coming. He arrived on May 25th at the Libertarian Party’s national convention in Washington, DC, hoping to expand his support, but the crowd mostly responded with boos. Attendees lacked enthusiasm for a protectionist who added $8.4trn to America’s national debt. They also spent the weekend squabbling among themselves. After losing presidential races for more than half a century, the Libertarian Party is facing an identity crisis.

(…)

The most intense divisions are about strategy. The hardline Mises Caucus (named after Ludwig von Mises, a pro-market Austrian economist) has dominated the party’s leadership since 2022 and adopted populist rhetoric. The group was responsible for inviting Mr Trump, as well as Robert F. Kennedy junior, an independent candidate, to speak at the convention. The debate about whether to invite the outside candidates at times seemed more heated than the Libertarians’ own presidential-nomination fight. On May 24th, the convention’s first day, one attendee yelled into the microphone, “I would like to propose that we go tell Donald Trump to go fuck himself!” The crowd cheered.

“I would rather us focus on the Libertarian candidates,” said Jim Fulner, from the Radical Caucus. “I’m fearful that come later this summer, when I’m working the county fair, someone will say, ‘Oh, Libertarians, you guys are the Donald Trump people.’” Nick Apostolopoulos, from California, welcomed the attention Mr Trump’s speech brought—and said his presence proved “this party matters, and that they have to try and appeal to this voting bloc.”

Few believed that Mr Trump won much support. He promised to appoint a Libertarian to his cabinet and commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, who is serving life in prison after founding the dark-web equivalent of Amazon for illegal drugs. The crowd responded positively to Mr Trump’s nod to a Libertarian cause célèbre, but booed after he asked them to choose him as the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee. Mr Trump hit back, “If you want to lose, don’t do that. Keep getting your 3% every four years.”

Mr Kennedy was more disciplined, tailoring his speech to the crowd by highlighting his opposition to covid lockdowns. Even so he received a cool reception. Libertarians want a candidate who will promise to abolish, not reform, government agencies.

The reality is that Libertarians are more interested in positions than personalities. The exception may be the broad admiration for Ron Paul, a retired Republican congressman whom many cite as their lodestar. But at 88 Mr Paul has achieved the difficult feat of being considered too old to plausibly run for president.

(…)

But the party is far from unified. Given the choice between Mr Oliver and “none of the above”, more than a third of the delegates preferred no one. It remains uncertain whether the party’s candidate will appear on the ballot in all 50 states, as several previous nominees have. If the Libertarian candidate has any influence on the presidential election this year, it will be as a spoiler in a close-run swing state.

Mr Oliver’s victory marked a rare defeat for the Mises Caucus. But the re-election of Angela McArdle, a Mises Caucus member, as the national party chairperson is perhaps more important to the future of the movement. Ms McArdle faced criticism for her decision to invite outside candidates to speak. Controversy over the Mises Caucus had led several state delegations to split, and much of the convention’s floor time was eaten up over fights about whom to recognise. The rise of the Mises wing of the party has led more pragmatically minded members to largely give up on the project of advancing libertarian ideas by building a political party.

The party struggles on big stages, such as in presidential, gubernatorial or Senate contests. Yet it occasionally wins municipal elections, leaving some to wonder whether national activism is pointless or even counter-productive. Why would Libertarians invest time in a hopeless race for president when they could direct their energy to fighting a local sales tax or antiquated laws restricting alcohol sales?

(…)

The party faithful believe that national and local activism are not mutually exclusive. Elijah Gizzarelli won fewer than 3,000 votes when he ran for governor of Rhode Island as a Libertarian two years ago, but he argues that the party has a long record of success—so long as the definition of success expands beyond winning elections. He says the party succeeds by shifting the “Overton window”, or the spectrum of political ideas that are generally considered acceptable.”