Landslide election results in Austria, Bavaria

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by Traianvs

Austria has an inherent extremist right base, so it doesn't come as much of a surprise.

We shoulndn't be suprised considering who the most famous Austrian of history is...




I think the Allies made a big mistake after WW2 in not forcing Austria to deal with its Nazi history like they did with Germany.

This has allowed them to pretend like they don't have any blood on their hands and even entertain delusions that they where the first "victim" of Nazism.

[Ecthy]

Originally posted by Traianvs
More importantly I dispute Ecthy's term landslide. 30% is a lot, but remember that in '99 FPÖ single handedly gained 27% (thx wikipedia ). In fact the two parties merely split the voters. Austria has an inherent extremist right base, so it doesn't come as much of a surprise.

This is a matter of interpretation. In the elections of 2004, the far right was down to 15%. It's wrong to speak of an inherent extremist base if the results are oscillating like that. What they have is a large amount of undecided, disillusioned voters who may vote for extremists in one election, support a moderate party or abstain in another.

Also, as indicated in the OP, noneof the latest polls predicted a result like this. The far right parties were projected to gain abut 20% altogether.

[Ecthy]

Anyway, looks like Bavaria will get a "normal" bourgeois government of christian conservatives and free democrats. Meanwhile, the "greatest columnist of all times" and former German secretary of state has called the free voters' alliance a far-right threat to the conservatives, comparable to the Austrian extremist parties. Good morning Mr Fischer.

[Ecthy]

Bavaria. Clear landslide.

[Ecthy]

Austria. No landslide?

[Traianvs]

Bleh, it depends on what you compare it with. Compared to 2006 yes. Then again that's because it was crystal clear that FPÖ party members were incompetent nitwits and ÖVP found it impossible to reason with nationalist right. Evidently they got peppered in the 2006 elections, and rightly so.

We all know that, sadly, voters have a short memory, and the people who naturally leaned to the extreme right reverted to their standard disposition in the current elections. Of course the fact that SPÖ as well as ÖVP were destroying the household by meddling all the time helped. The standard voters who were disilliusioned fell into Strache's / Haider's trap of seeing these two represent the common man.

It would be a landslide if the extremist right were to be contained. Clearly that's not what happened, and it's plunged Austrian politics into some nasty coalition juggling.

Strache has claimed chancelorship - though nobody seems to understand on what basis but he has made himself impossible to everyone else with his hatespeech. The greens are too weak themselves to get a majority with either SPÖ or ÖVP. SPÖ and ÖVP can't really form a grand coalition because they have obviously been beaten in these elections, and they've been rolling on the floor fighting for the past few years anyway.

Kingmaker will be Haider once again.

[Ecthy]

Look, at least they have a country to speak of.

[Traianvs]

What do you mean?

[Ecthy]

Yours will be gone soon, everyone knows this.

[Riesstiu IV]

Does Germany plan on annexing Belgium again? Third time is the charm as they say.

[Ecthy]

No need to, they've been dissolving themselves anyway.

Traianus, the 1999/2000 election result was also a landslide, you can't compare to that one. 2006 was normal.

[Lancer]

Etchy, what flavor 'far right' parties are these? The kind that like to spread the word in tanks or spend less on social programs?

[Ecthy]

No political party could seriously suggest spreading the word in tanks. These usually play on racist tendencies and attack immigrants and other minority groups.

[Lancer]

Not being able to safely walk the streets at night is a huge change for a european country. I can see politicos taking advantage of that. You guys need workers you should open up immigration to Philippinos.

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Lancer
Etchy, what flavor 'far right' parties are these? The kind that like to spread the word in tanks or spend less on social programs?

I recall FPÖ's Strache is renowned for advocating the deletion of the law on negationism.