Why the Far-Left and Far-Right are Surging in Austria

[@TLDRnewsEU]

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[@john.premose]

Why do you equate the communist party rising with politics being “broken”? You reveal your biased, not that that surprises me.

[@johobi8675]

As crazy as Austrian politics are (and they are crazy indeed), the fact that corruption leads to actual scandals and sometimes even consequences for the corrupt, is a good thing.

[@simimy97]

It’s a smokescreen displayed to create that impression. In reality, much of the high-level corruption is never revealed or prosecuted. Only because the proverbial reputed politician gets caught red-handed every couple of years doesn’t mean systemic corruption isn’t continuously in place.

[@ephimp3189]

this is a fair point. In Russia they like to make fun of corruption scandals in Western countries, but the very fact that corruption is publicly reported in Western countries and not in Russia speaks volumes. In Russia, it is illegal to report any corruption, that's why you never hear about it it.

[@donkdump8807]

​@@ephimp3189it's not illegal to report corruption, in fact it's regularly revealed on all levels, but people simply do not care

[@pmmeurcatpics]

True. It feels really refreshing to hear about officials being thrown in jail for corruption and not just getting away with it. This should've been common sense, but isn't, sadly

[@rezolutionist7715]

Nothing compared to what is happening here, in Slovakia. Our extremely pro-russian, anti-eu, enormously corrupt former ex-prime minister (12 years of rule) is winning all the polls.

[@residentziege4893]

Worth mentioning: The Beer Party had a fully serious agenda for presidential election, leaving behind their old satire image and only keeping their name, which gave them a boost in polls.

[@zbynekurbanek3345]

and whats their position on beer and cycling?

[@rizkyadiyanto7922]

​@@zbynekurbanek3345free beer.

[@Eilandfreier364]

If by "serious" you mean "far left" then I would agree. Personally I don't really see how they are any different from die Grünen other than the fact that they are not the establishment.

[@DeFi-Macrodosing]

I'd definitely vote for those guys; the most serious of this odd bunch for sure (even if they had decided to keep their old brand/image).

[@zbynekurbanek3345]

@@rizkyadiyanto7922 and can i drink the free beer while Im on bicycle?

[@trotzkii]

Wow, a country that holds people in power accountable. What a novel idea!

[@JustAPintOfMilk]

still our politics and parties are a minefield currently.

[@vanbaguette7368]

Our country does, our voters don't.

[@terjehansen0101]

Hold them accountable for renovating Hitler's birthhouse and for not helping Ukraine. Or maybe Austria should join BRICS ?

[@JustAPintOfMilk]

@@terjehansen0101 Austria is a neutral country, initally forced on us after ww2 but nowadays very much by popular opinion. Yet Austria sends help to ukraine via non military means. It was very much discussed if Austria should partake in non combatiant military help, like mine clearing but neutrality stops us from doing so. Still we are western alligned but we simply cant send military equipment (via direct route) to Ukraine.

[@terjehansen0101]

Well, at least you are helping with some stuff, unlke the Swiss. And you have Stiegl beer. @@JustAPintOfMilk

[@rhopsi-q6b]

Tiny correction: Strache was then Vice-Chancellor, not Vice-President. But otherwise a pretty accurate assessment of the miserable state.

[@trayltank1015]

No Strache wasn’t jailed

[@rhopsi-q6b]

@@trayltank1015 And elephants can't fart. So, you were saying, what?

[@danielkocab6008]

Strache was merely prosecuted, but acquitted (court of appeal confirmed first-instance ruling). I don’t know if there is another pending procedure against him but I think there is at least one more. I don’t like the guy in particular, but all the indictments without conviction throws not the best light on the prosecution.

[@rhopsi-q6b]

@@danielkocab6008 I think Strache is already enough punished by being himself.

[@ungeimpfterrusslandtroll7155]

@@trayltank1015 Strache didn't even do anything wrong though. Even in the video where he is drunk, he literally says multiple times that he won't do anything unlawful. I don't like Strache for other reasons but the whole thing was a farce. All the things they accused him off were literally done by the government at the same time and after. Even the newspaper was bought by a guy close buddy to the chancellor of the time. It's all a joke.

[@andicantfindnoname2]

I have waited many years for a piece on Austrian politics from you. Thank you for finally publishing one. So many strange things have happened here in the last 5 years!

[@schwarzflammenkaiser2347]

Soon...

[@georgst]

Sadly they didn't even cover half of what happened

[@cxzact9204]

I had no idea it was such a messy mess in Vienna. I assumed Austria's politics were much like thre rest of Europe, split between traditional left and right sprinkled with the threaten of some far right elements, but this seems much more complicated. And then it seems there is a significant sect of Austrians on the same bandwagon as some Hungarians - kicking and screaming like an infant against systems like NATO and the EU, while it's just a tiny little percentage point in either organisation's big picture.

[@detectiverubs5830]

​@@cxzact9204Something worth mentioning is that the people are frustrated with the politicians in power due to their handling of the pandemic and the inflation and gas shortages in the face of the ukraine war. Even though no one could be held accountable for the pandemic, leaders in many countries became the target of the people's frustration. A genereally unhappy people and financial and existencial fears usually make it an easy game for populists like Kickl, who doesn't provide any real solutions but rather just points his finger at the government and tries to give them the fault for everything. And that works brilliantly since people like to think the crises is government made, rather than face the fact that they aren't in our control, since it's very threatening. But me, an Austrian, still got the hope that the far right, after they rise to power and the empty facade falls as they will be the ones held accountable, destroy themselves as they always did.

[@nirfz]

@@detectiverubs5830 When exactely did it work that they destroyed themselves? Sure with Ibiza Kurz was forced to blow up the coalition, but other than that, nothing destroyed them. And we saw that before, whatever they did, their "fanbase" is like a cult following and they can do whatever they want and lie as much as they want and still get their cheers. Funny to me is, the only thing i really found an issue with how the pandemic was handled is something that affected me personally, but i still think the pandemic was over all handled pretty good here in austria. (My problem is that the gyms were closed for so long that i got health problems due to that. Would have appreciated it if they had allowed training with masks earlier.)

[@florianhock4155]

When the SPÖ elected their new leader. They made a mistake with an excel sheet and initially proclaimed the wrong leader. This error was discovered two days later

[@Zett76]

Already almost forgot that one…. 😆

[@kingdomofbird8174]

That was a so terrible error

[@k.umquat8604]

lmao

[@kees0r]

Embarrassing but better than to have the false Leader though. Another center-right person would‘ve been worse

[@TheXasTube]

calling it an "error" was most likely just an offramp to keep their face instead of suffering from having to investigate potential fraud on an internal vote.

[@simonmylak4112]

Strache was actually the vice chancellor. In Austria we don't have a vice president.

[@chrisbeer5685]

True. BTW if the President is away or incapacitated, the Head of Parliament (Nationalratspresident) takes over until he's back, so that's the closest Austria has to a vice President.

[@Grumpy_ol_Gamer]

Vienna Art School has been accepting every applicant in preventive desperation.

[@zurielsss]

Can you blame them? Austria started 2 world wars already 🤣

[@RedVSBlueIsCewl]

@@zurielsssonly one because of a art school reject tho.. 😂

[@gtr5860]

Hitler is National Socialist..

[@MrBenedictus25]

No sorry it was outbgerman neighbours. And Beethoven is austrian. Didnt u get the Memo

[@gerrymnt9250]

@@zurielsssaustria didn’t start ww2 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@V0042]

Good video and coverage of our broken politics. As an Austrian I still hope for a proper government without corruption somewhen

[@antigonostiggokarchedonios4788]

How with 50 % running after corrupt parties? Without a new conservative force to pull voters away from ÖVP and FPÖ the future looks dimm imho.

[@TheHiebl007]

That would probably mean a government without FPÖ, ÖVP and SPÖ, or radical change in any of these. So, probably not in the foreseeable future.

[@lorenzovalsesia3721]

Probably the request of every country in Europe and the rest of the world

[@lloydgush]

Hey, it's just literal communists. You are lucky if you don't starve.

[@xzaratulx]

Yeah, he nailed it pretty well how broken we are. ÖVP, FPÖ, SPÖ as incompetent and corrupt as ever. So, fellow Austrians .. next year are parliament elections; choose wisely 🙃

[@gorbi8496]

Austria begins where comedy ends

[@MalcolmGraves55]

50 likes anniversary comment

[@KathyClysm]

Quick note: The Communist Party aren't really "communist" in the USSR sense of the word, they are more a left version of a Labour-esque party. Think Greens but less eco and more social wellfare

[@ParasocialCatgirl]

So they're _actually_ Communist. Nice.

[@linusminus3]

How does the Communist Party compare to the SPÖ under it's current leadership? Are the CP open to leave the EU?

[@puddingsimon2626]

I don’t know but don’t call yourself communist then, cause behind that word lies millions upon millionste corpses, you wouldn’t call yourself a Nazi when your a Nationalist would you?

[@JOKERATM]

Yeah, to me it's absurd when they call some European parties communist or fascist, when most of these aren't even close to the real ideologies

[@AWESOMERACECAR2013]

adding onto that however, they are a lot more in favour of pursuing socialism than the greens - they are essentially reformist socialists who seek to work within the system of capitalist democracy to establish socialism. I think it is fair to call them communists, but they are not revolutionary like most 20th century communist movements.

[@ondank]

FPO - Working with Nato threatens our neutrality Also FPO - Oh yeah, big daddy Putin 🥵

[@imaginary8168]

FPO = 🤡🤡🤡

[@karankapoor2701]

They are correct about muslim immigration

[@NaSaSh1087]

Actually left wing populists are more Russian than right wing populists across Europe (like German Linke or Slovakian left) and even Latin America (Peronista in Argentina and Lula are more pro Russian than Bolsonaro).

[@yuliusseraph4973]

@@NaSaSh1087 right-wing parties are by far the most pro-Putin. While this is a problem for left-wing parties as well, but much more rare.

[@ondank]

@@NaSaSh1087 so? This video is about Austrian politics and this specific comment is regarding the blatant hypocrisy of appealing to neutrality whilst also getting into bed with Putin. Your whataboutery is ridiculous.

[@lucavonhabsburg270]

Also, the social democrats leadership election didn't quite go as planned. 3 candidates ran for leadership, Pamela Rendi-Wagner, the then leader of the SPÖ, Hans-Peter Doskozil, the Gouvernour of Burgenland and the now leader Andreas Babler. Rendi Wagner was eliminated in the first round of votes, but then, in the second round, Hans-Peter Doskozil was proclaimed the winner first. Then, a few days later, Andreas Babler was handed the victory. Someone from the ORF, the Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian Broadcast), had discovered, that there was a mistake made when counting the votes.

[@davidwuhrer6704]

Planned? The SPÖ usually have only one candidate, this time they had three. There was no plan for how it would go. It was an important decision on fundamentals: Doskozil was more popular with the general voting public, a vote for him was a vote for being more like the ÖVP: Get into power by whatever it takes. Rendi-Wagner was a vote for staying the course set by Kreisky. Basler was the black horse, a back-to-the-roots candidate. And the party voted to go with ideological principles over the lobby trough. The way I remember it, there was no miscounting of the votes. The wrong cell from the Excel table was copy-pasted to the website, that's all. And it didn't take days to correct the mistake, but the ORF didn't shut up about it for a week.

[@nikauswien5863]

1st round was a non-binding members consultation were everyone got around a third - rendi wagner withdrew afterwards

[@anlumo1]

All three candidates were about equal in the results, Babler only won at random within the statistical noise. That's the most important aspect IMO.

[@JustAPintOfMilk]

​@@davidwuhrer6704as i recall it, they send the results in with one vote missing from the poll. This caused someone to question the results and this caused the discovery of the excel f up

[@zbynekurbanek3345]

someone supposedly from the radio supposedly found out that there was supposedly mistake that was supposedly big enough to change the result... in US when you challenge the election you are jailed (or at least they try to jail you), in Austria when you challenge the winner rolls over and concedes immediately... both are bad wrong approaches...

[@henrikthorsen5971]

The more I hear, the better I can understand the growing support for the beer party.

[@JustAPintOfMilk]

they did start of as a joke, but they currently are a serious party

[@LukerYT]

My one criticism for this video is that the point about the 'Corbyn' candidate and the subsequent polling you show feels a bit misleading? He only came to power in June of this year, and you present the numbers as if his leadership brought the polling from the 30% peak to where it is now. If anything, according to Politico, his appointment has increased from where it was (22%) to where it is now (23%, so, marginal, but that's all his tenure has been).

[@KrashFries]

what do you expect, he’s british.

[@frmcf]

So, just like Corbyn then, including the relentless media hit pieces and constant insinuation that anyone to the left of John Major cannot be taken seriously.

[@ted___]

the "objective" tldrnews at it again

[@ignatzmeyer1978]

Babler has three major problems. First he is in a minority position on the immigration issue, which is very important for the Austrian electorate. Second he can't do his left-wing populist style because his mighty centrist party friends (Ludwig, Kaiser, Doskozil, Dornauer,...) won't let him do that. Third he has little political expierience on the national level.

[@rogink]

I'm not sure Corbyn would accept the 'Marxist' label - does this guy? JC would certainly describe himself as 'socialist', something which for any other Labour leader would be electoral suicide. Anyway, the terms left and right wing seem meaningless now. If a 'far right' Austrian party aligns itself with a leader who claims the end of Communist Russia was the 'greatest catastrophe' of the 20th century, who knows what any of these terms mean!

[@andir7374]

Honestly if I were an Austrian at the moment i'd probably vote for the beer party, too. Greeting from Bavaria

[@jakel8627]

In that part of Europe, beer is everywhere.

[@felixweinlinger]

Average Bavarian comment. Much love to our bavarian brothers and sisters.🇦🇹⚪🔵

[@lemonmapping]

Sad that they would only build a beer fountain in vienna because other Bundesländer would also like to have a beer fountain so this isnt too atractive.

[@zbynekurbanek3345]

Id vote beer party, if they allow beer for cyclists... thats the decider to know what theyre about...

[@chilloutcentral2097]

Being Bavarian, of course you would say that. You must be jealous.

[@jensschroder8214]

Austrian politicians recommend alcohol or psychedelic drugs if inflation doesn't come down. German politicians are working on the legalization of cannabis. If that's not a coincidence.

[@fka-Kaya]

Nehammer was "just joking", the ÖVP have been the ones blocking the legalization of cannabis for decades now.

[@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana]

If it works, it works.

[@Ibidesgsindl]

​@@fka-KayaLuckily

[@sup3rAVATARtlafAN]

Politics in Europe have really gone quite nuts as of late

[@Real_MrDev]

It's 1930's all over again 😭😭😭

[@SP95]

Its nothing compared to 100 years ago. Now we are simply swarmed by naïve whiners raising socialism as a state religion.

[@soundscape26]

Yet the vast majority of the population keeps being quite moderate.

[@karankapoor2701]

​@@Real_MrDevshut upp

[@Siranoxz]

Same can be said about American politics, if not worse.

[@statsguy1446]

Don't tell Czechs about this beer party thing or they may reconsider the single-party system again 😅

[@dgh6g33gf]

Czech single party Beer empire

[@JustAPintOfMilk]

the Austro-Czech Republic. Reunited after over 100 years, with the common goal of getting wasted

[@statsguy1446]

@@JustAPintOfMilk A country of 20 million drunkards and a beer powerhouse doesn't sound so bad tbh. The Bavarians would be jealous tho 😁

[@fabianauer1986]

@@statsguy1446 Sounds like a good union

[@tobiisgerman]

i hope the beer party will further become a stronger player in austrias politics

[@TheHiebl007]

The third place in the last presidential election (behind the Green president and the FPÖ second place) could carry a lot of momentum if they actually run for parliament.

[@babahanuman83]

alcohol anyhow is playing a big role with our iorderedthreebeer-politicians.

[@rikuvakevainen6157]

​@@babahanuman83you are drunk. Give me your car keys.😊

[@babahanuman83]

finnish man meets austrian man for drinking vodka. finnish man says: "cheers". austrian man answers: "did we meet for talking or for drinking?"@@rikuvakevainen6157

[@fka-Kaya]

@@TheHiebl007 Meh, since our president is mostly a representational figure, it really doesn´t mean all that much. (Which they really should have mentioned in the video)

[@igeljaeger]

Ich will nicht mehr, ich kann nicht mehr, ich halte das alles nicht mehr aus

[@Brown95P]

TLDR: "Why the far-left and far-right are surging in Austria" France: "First time?"

[@Alexander-h9g9h]

Nyeeeesnt..... cough cough... we got the right though mostl to deal with

[@KanalvogtSG]

Your profile pic reminds me of something... I'm a Scatman!

[@MrCalls1]

It should be stated the KPO(communist) party is anti-Soviet and very young, and seems to be only NATO-sceptical even now, when one may have expected them to flip to pro-Russiaism. They’re very much committed to reform through the democratic system, and will be more like a very agressive social Democratic Party, with a preference for worker ownership rather than private ownership + unions (which is of course acceptable to them, just not their ideal state). They’re also very enthusiastic about returning austria to a more active social housing building project - against austria is better at managing housing costs than many but there are plenty of ideas to iterate upon it.

[@PhthaloJohnson]

Putin himself is anti-Soviet so I don't think this makes them any less or any more pro-Russian. Weren't they the ones that called the EU "the most aggressive military alliance, worse then NATO", seems pretty sketch to me.

[@puddingsimon2626]

Brother, the communist ideology is in its foundation not compatible with a democratic system, there lying as every communist does, all to gain power. And god help us if they get it.

[@TheAmericanAmerican]

​@@PhthaloJohnsonPutin is "anti-Soviet"??? Man, can I have whatever it is you're smoking cuz you be trippin' ballz!!! 🤣🤣

[@fka-Kaya]

@@PhthaloJohnson That was Babler, SPÖ, as mentioned in the video btw.

[@DrZaius3141]

Essentially, the KPÖ took the place that the SPÖ inhabited 40-50 years ago. Ever since ÖVP and SPÖ shifted to the right, there was a vacuum in the centre and centre-left. The Green Party tried to fill it, but they had one thing going against them: BS media coverage that completely distorted what they actually stood for. Bottom line: The KPÖ is what the SPÖ should have been (and with Babler is trying to become again).

[@Andrew-ob5ij]

As people are facing economic hardship, and it’s easier to blame immigrants than the system itself, has happened for centuries

[@SP95]

Those are fallacious accusations as even the wealthy can't stand third word invaders either. Don't reflect your socialists griefs to those people the same way you furiously fantasize about the rich supposedly holding down the economy. Anti third world invaders have no economical claims towards them.

[@OPOS-el7tj]

Or you can do both, as you should...

[@dalfokane]

@@OPOS-el7tj To be fair, immigrants more often than not contribute to the economy, instead of harming it.

[@SP95]

At best third world invaders self contributes to themselves making them useless on an economical standpoint. But now they are starting to aim for the biggest highest paid jobs like any predators would do after a while.

[@DoctorM42]

Why not both? Immigrants wouldn't be there without system's approval, after all.

[@ReinhardP]

Some comments: 1:30 Strache was Vice-Chancellor, not Vice-President (the latter doesn't even exist in Austria). 2:17 while the other pronunctiations are really good, it's more like KOO-RTS for Kurz. 2:32 the highlighting went wrong here 3:00 Strache was never jailed. He was indicted for some alleged cases of corruption and has been found guilty in 2021 (Prikraf-Affäre, 15 months conditional sentence), but was acquitted in an appellate court in 2023 for that case. Other indictments are still to follow (misuse of party funds for personal use).. 4:26 don't know if he really got kicked out, he resigned after Kurz left politics altogether in December 2021 (who remained head of the people's party after resigning as chancellor). I think he rather invisioned himself as a stop-gap and thought Kurz could return as chancellor. 7:23 The FPÖ formed a coalition as the minority partner with the social-democrats from 1983 until 1986. 8:13 I think it's noteworthy that more than half of the social-democratic delegates did not attend Zenesky's speech either.

[@Jonas_M_M]

On the last note, it should have also been mentioned how the government is still not too keen on ending the economic ties with Rushia. The video lacks context in general.

[@michaelgrabner8977]

Note: in the period 1983 till 1986 the FPÖ was very much a Liberal Party with Liberal leaders. That changed drastically in 1986 when Jörg Haider took the lead and the right wingers took over the party - as direct consequence the Social Democrats ended the coalition immediately - then the FPÖ splitted and the Liberals left the party and founded the "Liberal Forum party" which disappeard on the political spectrum some years later. That has to be explained for that coalition of the Social Democrats and the FPÖ otherwise it is totally misleading (which was your intent I guess)= "the FPÖ back then wasn´t in the slightest like the FPÖ from 1986 till today.

[@ReinhardP]

​ @michaelgrabner8977 nice insinuation... I was simply pointing out mistakes TLDR made in their reporting. But, if you insist: The FPÖ under Steger just took a slight turn into liberalism, but was firmly on the right even back then. Former SS-Obersturmbannführer Peter negotiated the coalition in 1983 with Bruno Kreisky. Make of that what you will.

[@michaelgrabner8977]

@@ReinhardP The turn into liberalismn took place under Götz already in 1978. Don´t get me wrong I´m not a FPÖ supporter who is here defending anything but I´m a time witness. And the FPÖ back then was a total irrelevant party and had just 4,9% at the General Election of 1983 barly reaching the threshold for being in parliament and had similar results all the years before since their founding in the 50ties. And those roughly 5% was always splitted amongst right wing voters and Liberal voters. As I already said before "that FPÖ" from back then isn´t in the slightest comparable to the "FPÖ from 1986 till today" in behalf of their politics and in behalf of political influence in general.

[@ReinhardP]

@@david_yordanov No, neither jailed nor imprisoned.

[@zzguyy9421]

Tell the art colleges to accept everyone at all costs

[@danielmcallahan]

As an austrian, it is really cool you are talking about this! The entire politics of our country, on a national, state and local level have been an absolute joke since the ibiza scandal in 2019

[@ungeimpfterrusslandtroll7155]

Yeah but this report here is on the same level.

[@theuglykwan]

Suddenly the beer party might be the most sober choice...

[@stephaniemez7874]

Very good investigation and very accurate. Tiny correction: Strache has NOT been jailed as you would might expect there would be consequenses for what he had done, instead the organizers of the Ibiza-Video were imprisioned (pretrial detention), but because of something else - Therefore might be a confusion because of translation. Its very embarrassing to be an Austrian.

[@NovaFrederick]

Attention to all art schools: do not reject any applications

[@notreallyhere67]

Just reject the ones with long German surnames that aren’t easily pronounced by non-German speakers . Notice how every dictator has or had a very short surname that was easily pronounced by everyone outside of their country.

[@Rambletripe1]

It's simple why the 'far-left' and 'far-right' are surging. The mainstream parties are everything wrong with career politicians (lies, corruption, carreerists, disdain for voters) and a lot of voters' concerns have been ignored for decades. If you are consistently marginalising, let's say 30%, of the electorate,what do you expect to happen?

[@ASSASIN7-sd5sr]

so that means you go to the most extreme that only know destruction. have you guys never learned any lesson from ww1 and ww2?

[@MsZeeZed]

I would suggest that massaging opinion polls is less anti-democratic than massaging a Russian Oligarch’s niece.

[@zbynekurbanek3345]

except FPO are mainstream party for decades and are not far-right.

[@fka-Kaya]

@@zbynekurbanek3345 LOL!

[@soundscape26]

And then when those far-right and far-left people got to power they would do exactly the same... because power corrupts. It's much easier to be in the opposition.

[@AaronOkeanos]

This is what I like on Multi-Party Proportional Representation. It has some kind of self-regulation feature. The moment the more moderate parties refuse to compromise, have scandals or simply stagnate by doing nothing the votes go to the left and right until the moderates get their things in order or disappear. And even if it sounds bad that the extremes are pushed they have not the votes to implement their agendas because of the counterweight on the other side and they need to compromise too to get anything done. And when they getting too extreme the votes return back to the center. It's like a built-in balance-system to prevent extreme law-making and lazyiness and ignoring the public and encourage compromise.

[@DrZaius3141]

Except that it doesn't work in Austria. The ÖVP has been part of government since 1987, they never cooperate and no matter how many former ministers get convicted, they still remain in power to some extent.

[@Pan_Z]

Democracy breeds an environment of accountability. Well, at least that's the hope. After any group is ousted from power, it will inevitably try to reform and clean itself, so as to win back voters.

[@christianpetersen163]

Regardless of the criticism towards it, PR does it's job as a matter of fact. Whether the old parties will react when an extremist movement gains traction is another issue. They could all see the malignant tumor as it grew, and they chose to do nothing about it, so the outcome is their own fault. Conversely, FPTP is not actually democracy, because the voters are obliged to vote tactically.

[@AaronOkeanos]

@@christianpetersen163 In America it's much worse. Not only do you have an even stronger FPTP system punishing the side that decided to split harshly but you also can only choose between 2 parties. Together with the high levels of corruption due to legalized bribery, lack of transparency and accountability regarding donations and campaign finance you could hardly call it a democracy at all especially after the right moved more and more away to a position which makes compromise impossible.

[@joaquinescotoaleman4320]

And what happens next is that the political system is stagnant.

[@Zestieee]

For anyone wondering, the reason why so many Austrian parties have a Ö in their acronyms is because of the country's native name in German: Österreich, whose literal meaning is something like "realm of the east" or "eastern country".

[@RickJaeger]

Interesting! I figured it was because they moonlighted as extremely large heavy metal bands in their off-time.

[@VINCENTBUTZ6]

Thanks captain obvious

[@TheMystixCube]

Remember when Austria had a Far Right person, he might try and move to Germany

[@user-op8fg3ny3j]

Hopefully art school is accepting this time

[@EllieD.Violet]

He is free to do so under FoM. Wouldn't help him much, unless the AfD gains more than 50% in federal elections, they don't get in government. Any centrist and leftist party has ruled out coaliting with them.

[@adineatha9766]

Maybe Austria can get back South Tyrol and rejoin Germany. Same for Elsass Lothringen and Liechtenstein. All German speakers separated by WW2.

[@moloids]

​@@adineatha9766no Austrian wants to be part of Germany or have South Tyrol back - except hardcore neo nazis. Not even the run of the mill far right wingers are interested in that.

[@mrm7058]

@ 6:30I like the idea of an outdoor beer fountain... 🍻🍺

[@der.Schtefan]

I find it amusing that English native speakers structurally belittle and laugh at German native speakers for their accent, but themselves are completely incapable, probably even unwilling, of pronouncing basic German words and names.

[@redminute6605]

The thumbnail is so positive: the more communist, the more chances we have at solving issues related to inequality, global warming, etc. It click-baited me due to the incredibly positive message!

[@redminute6605]

Yep... I'm moving to Austria!

[@Doge811]

😂😂😂😂😂 When communists ever resolved issues 😂😂😂😂

[@redminute6605]

@@Doge811 yeah… you’re one of those guys… I believe in a form of communism that’s not authoritarian (which is Marxist-communism), which has the goal to address economical and social inequalities, I don’t care what Stalin or Lenin did, I would never consider that any form of communism. Having said that: If you like that much the taste of Musk/Bezos/Gates boot in your mouth, I’ve got to respect your choice.

[@JamesTurner-os7sw]

I lost concentration when I heard there was an Austrian Beer Party. I then spent the rest of the video day dreaming about creating a UK sister party. 🤔 Quick poll, would you vote for me? Y/N

[@user-yf4gx9lw6c]

The Stella Party or the Carlin’ party?

[@JamesTurner-os7sw]

@@user-yf4gx9lw6c That's going to be more vicious than the Brexit debate. Especially after a few Stellas

[@gocool_2.0]

Its 1912 all over again. The days when Hitler, Stalin, Tito and Trotsky were all in Vienna.

[@tomorrowneverdies567]

Then I see zero resemblance with today, as none of the parties of this video are either national socialists, or communists, or have any other extremist ideology.

[@Ibidesgsindl]

1912 was still k&k time. All of them were on nobody's radar in that time.

[@Renegateor]

Well done video and summary! The only thing to remark: 1:30 Strache was vice-chancellor, not vice-president

[@sirteabag8652]

Please don't start rejecting people from art school Austria. Thanks.

[@7uss240]

Love seeing anti corruption at work, Austria is a beautiful country and deserves much better.

[@pradstar_]

Just dont have a failed painter take charge of either one of them

[@AlfredR92]

It's really captivating to see how the stock market and the most recent inflation statistics, together with the instability of the banking sector, correlate. It's interesting to see how retail investors have been drawn to digital currencies as an alternative asset in times when confidence in traditional banking is eroding. In the constantly changing world of finance, the permission-less and autonomous nature of these virtual assets provides a sense of safety and value.

[@Ritchie319]

I concur; but, despite his success, a senior coworker of mine never made an investment. Sadly, he lost his job and had to make drastic changes to his lifestyle. If he had an investment in financial assets, he would have had something to fall back on.

[@Amybeth_T]

I have a financial analyst who excels at what he does. As a newbie in the financial markets, he has significantly aided in my recovery of all losses. Andrew Glenn Adams has significantly improved my financial situation. You can find him by conducting a quick Internet search.

[@Devcabott]

@@Amybeth_T Assets can help you succeed in life. I've been curious about digital assets and will contact Mr Adams to see if he can assist me. Much appreciated!

[@prkp7248]

It provide a sense of security, but it is not secure at all.

[@JustAPintOfMilk]

Fun fact: durring the timeline the video was about, Austria has been a technocracy for a short while

[@christoffellner84]

Being Austrian myself, i remember the humility having to explain wtf just happened to my German housemates when i started an internship in Brussels in early Jan 2022.

[@johnchessant3012]

5:58 wait, if Babler was just recently elected as leader how could he be responsible for a polling decline that started last year?

[@Luksoropoulos]

Yep, that is quite misleading; the fall in the polls has nothing to do with Babler

[@Jonas_M_M]

poorly researched

[@cameron6770]

Banning shandies and a public beer fountain sound good to me!

[@lanzelot1989]

Strache wasn't Vice President, he was Vice Chancellor

[@a1990hussain]

I just hope their art schools aren't turning anyone away

[@DavidWilliams-DSW558]

You must admit that the Beer Party sounds pretty cool! 🍻

[@miguelgameiro8063]

Look who’s back

[@oooshafiqooo]

wie ist wieder da

[@user-op8fg3ny3j]

Back again

[@SP95]

Shady's back

[@shanebreingan1034]

There is a lot wrong with the video. 1) Austria's politics was always crazy & bumpy, compared to other countries. Club 45, Eurofighter-affair or Noricum-scandal (the list goes on) Austria is like a combination out of Germany and Angola on bad cocaine. 2) The FPÖ's first taste with power was not in 1999 in a coalition with the ÖVP. It was in 1983 (till 1987) with the SPÖ, under Chancellor's Sinowatz & Vranitzky. 3) All this could have been checked with a easy Wikipedia search. 4) Nonetheless, it's much appreciated that you made a video about Austria. Thank you.

[@fka-Kaya]

They also said Strache was vice president, instead of vice chancellor, and failed to mention, that our president is mostly a representational figure, when talking about Mark Pogo. Every time I watch a video from this channel about anything I know a lot about, it turns out to be very superficial and sometimes straight up incorrect.

[@zbynekurbanek3345]

if he admitted FPO first went into coalition with SPO, then he couldnt pretend his far-right smear of them...

[@Argent_99]

Yeah, but that FPÖ was functionally and ideologically a completely different party then it’s subsequent iteration after Jörg Haider took over and moved the party from its somewhat shallow center-left-with-a-strong-libertarian bend alignment to the far, far right. The name was the same, but the party had changed most radically. Having grown up in Austria during that period, it was sorta like how here in the US, after trump got elected, it was common to say ‚oh, they are now saying the quiet parts out loud now…‘. We used to joke that if you scratched the blue (party color) of the FPÖ, it was all brown underneath (brown being the party color of the nazis.) I found the whole right-ward lurch and it’s accompanying ultra-nationalism to be so worrysome that I basically jumped at a chance to go to back to the US for college. Had a few good years, but didn’t exactly work out for me. ;)

[@jtgd]

@@zbynekurbanek3345I think your sentence is incomplete. Also, a coalition doesn’t mean you agree with your members. It’s an agreement to be in power when there isn’t enough support individually to win without a coalition

[@jtgd]

@@zbynekurbanek3345you’re just someone who refuses to admit far right politics exist, and try to warp political understandings with your own opinions to pretend like far rightists somehow cannot desire authoritarianism, because YOU believe the political spectrum is from “government-anarchism”, which isn’t even agreed upon by political scientists. By your logic, most people are leftists, including social conservatives if they happen to agree with something like the existence of a welfare state.

[@EmptyCrystal]

Strache is benign in comparison to Kickl. Strache would enter negotiations with ministers of the peoples party whilst being very drunk and angering his party colleagues. Kickl tried to raid the secret service and probably will work on promoting a populist autocratic rule. He styles himself as "Volkskanzler" or Peoples Chancellor, while this is just a benign phrase he used crypto fascist phrases in the past as well: "Migrants should be concentrated in camps" He also declared himself to be a christian who prays often and he apparently had some kind of highschool love affair with a later MoP for the green party Eva Glawischnig, who after politics chose to become a lobbyist for a gambling company. He made remarks about becoming a far right demagogue somehow is his failed love affair villain arc, which would be hilarious, if the situation wasnt so serious.

[@zbynekurbanek3345]

anyryone who destroys secret services is a good person. Always. Secret services are a plague upon societies. Unelected, undemocratic, self appointed vielders of power. if secret service publicly tells something you can be sure the opposite is true. Their only purpose it to hide secrets from people and to lie to people.

[@Ibidesgsindl]

Honestly, I'd rather have Kickl over Strache.

[@nirfz]

Agree. People underestimate the danger Kickl would pose to austrian democracy. He already worked on that while minister for the interiour (apart from his "horse-joke"). And he and his party are in favor of removing freedom of journalism like Erdogan and Orban are working on heavily. Kickl in my opinion is more intelligent than Strache, and more "evil at heart". He would kill his mother for power. (and i mean that litterally. I mean he suggested to use that anti worm stuff for horses against covid. You know, the stuff people in the US died from using. Gladly this was prohibited as good as possible in austria. So he litteraly would walk over dead bodies for the gain of power.)

[@babahanuman83]

the far left is almost nonexisting in austria. but - austria being a conservative catholic country - the far right was always and still is very strong.

[@AshkanPacino13]

why the social democrats are shooting themselves in the foot by choosing that Marxist guy? this sounds like self sabotage

[@bloodwargaming3662]

23% of the population follow no religion The country is the most gay people accepting country one can't think of. So what's "conservative" here ? It's more like centre left-right combination

[@puddingsimon2626]

@@bloodwargaming3662there is a difference between accepting and "I don’t fucking care"

[@yuriarlequim]

That is nonsensical. Austria has no right wing not even a center right wing party. Please a Catholic country that stops a month to celebrate pride? Come on man you have nothing to worry about

[@starbuxxxx]

@@yuriarlequim True: The FPÖ are are clearly far-right. And your pride argument is obviously whataboutism.

[@David-sl6xf]

The Marxist guy calling the EU the "Most aggressive military alliance that's ever existed" is so absurd I thought the guy was mistranslated and actually talking about NATO (still stupid) but no, apparently that guy thinks the EU is a more aggressive military alliance than NATO! Hard to take that guy seriously on any FP issue.

[@dgh6g33gf]

He must've meant Nato, otherwise there's a serious lack of context going on or something, it doesn't make sense as presented in the video.

[@ArminUlbrich]

Thank you for this episode (from an Austrian)!

[@the8thgemmer467]

The presenetation of Babler is completely wrong. He has repeatedly said he supports the EU and the SPO fell to 20% before he was elected and has since slightly recovered.

[@Real_MrDev]

God dawg, my continent has gone NUTS.

[@intersezioni]

we all remember Jörg Haider, a great representative of the extreme right found frequenting gay clubs

[@TheLastAngryMan01]

Good video. As a foreigner residing in Austria, a couple of additional details: 1. The FPÖ essentially started its existence as a refuge for former Nazis, with its first two leaders being former SS officers, one being a former Nazi Minister for Agriculture. It continues to hold a hard line on immigration to Austria. 2. Nostalgia for the past is a big thing here, particularly in Vienna. The Hapsburg Empire spanned a large portion of Central Europe and the Balkans, and even went as far as Mexico at one point. Modern day Austria is thus a truncated version of what it once was, and I think people feel that. 3. From my observation, many Austrians don’t seem to care too much about political corruption, even taking it as a fact of life, provided that the admittedly excellent public services here are not messed with, and that their pensions remain at their current generous level. 4. There is a significant element of the “Querdenker” or alternative thinker in English, which is sceptical to establishment institutions and received wisdom. Hence the very large minority of Covid 19 sceptics in Austria. Since the pandemic, there are mass protests every week in Vienna, from issues such as NATO accession (a non-runner) to anti-LGBT marches, climate crisis, pro and anti-Ukraine marches etc. It’s all very tiresome for those of us who live in the city. 5. There is no law upholding political transparency in Austria, no Freedom of Information legislation. Thus, it is difficult for the media to do investigative journalism a lot of the time, and indeed they are in a vulnerable position due to a reliance on government funding and advertising. 6. Austria is generally a very corporatist state, everything comes down to political connections here. Political parties tend to control everything in their area, from allocation of housing to government jobs. Thus, public servants like teachers will often pay the fees to join all the political parties, so as not to rule themselves out of employment anywhere. 7. For all those issues, Austria is a beautiful country with incredible scenery and outdoor pursuits. It is also very affordable in a West European context and is something of a hidden jewel in my opinion. I would highly advise a visit here, particularly for those of you who enjoy skiing or hiking, historical sites and hearty food and wine. The country also has an excellent transport network which makes it relatively easy to get around.

[@fabianauer1986]

Vienna is affordable . In the west of austria it is the exact opposite

[@TheLastAngryMan01]

@@fabianauer1986 I’d have to trust you on that, have never lived out there. I’d add that while renting in Vienna is still good value, the mortgage market has gone completely crazy here in the past few years.

[@fabianauer1986]

@@TheLastAngryMan01 Well I'll put it this way, we all hate Vienna because all our money goes to this shitty city. Before we take care of the apartments in Vienna, we should take care of the apartment prices in Innsbruck (More then half of our money goes into renting while earning the least) and the traffic problem in Salzburg. It's just a joke that Vienna is seen as this model city

[@TheLastAngryMan01]

@@fabianauer1986 I didn’t suggest it was a competition, I’m sure the other states have their issues that need tending to. I would suggest that the model city comparison is in reference to other capital cities, rather than provincial cities and towns.

[@ungeimpfterrusslandtroll7155]

That's a very Vienna centric view and it is true to a large extent. In Austria we say "Wien is anders"(Vienna is different)

[@dirtyden1]

The beer party. Now that's a party I can get behind.

[@guss77]

I'm just sitting here in Israel and wishing that we were in the same position where the PM was marred in corruption controversies and voters react by voting for other parties - if only we had that kind of informed votes.

[@davidzolcer4848]

Cheers and Love to all Austrians from your neighbour in Slovakia ✌🏼👍🏼🇸🇰🇦🇹

[@Zzzooooppp]

Do the people who live in Ibiza pronounce it “Ibitha”? Or is that just the Castilian pronunciation? Edit: it’s Eivissa in the local dialect, so I don’t see the issue with Anglos saying it with a “z” sound.

[@jamesgoode6672]

Equating the far right and the communist party is a bit silly.

[@mk9650]

Yay! You used the term far left for once!

[@rasendor1096]

Entered by reading “Australia” on the title, but not leaving disappointed.

[@DGoldy303]

Beer party has my support. 🍺 👍

[@alvinbuj4102]

if a painter apply for a college, dont reject his/her application.

[@floppa9415]

Its so crazy that people here are so laser focused on stopping Immigration that seemgingly nothing else matters. Many People's Party voters are just more moderate FPÖ voters.

[@SP95]

Everyone is, even in Africa they begged for 300 years for europeans to get out of their land.

[@xHiNoTorix]

Immigration simply doesn't work when the host county is in crisis. That being said, immigration will always be a very touchy subject. Many people all over Europe are against it and peopel in South Africa even threatened to kill immigrants.

[@karlkrassnitzer6819]

The FPÖ with leader Herbert Kickl is not a radical right party. Kickl is a very talented politician similar than Orban. The other parties will put FPÖ in the radical right side without succes and that is the merit of Kickl.

[@NaphtaliHirsch]

You are right. The FPÖ is not a radically far right party. And this young dude does not mention the problems of Austria with economic migrants from Muslim countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq or countries in Africa. Everyday you can read about Austrians being raped, stabbed, robbed, beaten up or murdered by these migrants who do not want to work. The dude who created this video should learn what thoroughly research means or he should shut up.

[@extremegrieferbible]

@@NaphtaliHirsch Imagine thinking the FPÖ is not a far right party and then having the gall to tell other people they need to do their research. The irony, it hurts. I'm curious how many more members of the party have to have been associated with neonazi groups in their youth for you to think that the term "far right" applies.

[@michaeljforde]

How short is Sunak in that clip of NATO???

[@Agent-lr4ez]

I would vote for the beer party tbh. If I had the option.

[@reasonable-thoughts]

The Beer Party say no more take my vote

[@AaronOkeanos]

I hope for you they are not just competent on the topic of beer.

[@Matze-nc7yg]

This title is just wrong. The far left is not surging, it's just false. Like all of EU, Austria is pivoting to right-wing politics. It's just sad. I live in Austria and it sucks... People always say politicians are so corrupt and then go and vote for exactly these corrupt politicians. It's so confusing.

[@DH-iv1ut]

Es ist wirklich nur traurig in diesem Land

[@lahoare]

This video contains the following errors, some of which other commentors have noted: 1) Power hasn't exclusively oscillated between the People's Party and the Social Democrats since 1945; the Freedom Party and the Greens have also been in coalition. 2) Heinz-Christian Strache was vice-chancellor, not vice-president. 3) Your graphic which purports to show the People's Party-Green coalition in parliament shows a Freedom Party-Green coalition. 4) Heinz-Christian Strache was not jailed on corruption charges related to the Ibiza affair. He was tried and later acquitted on bribery charges unrelated to Ibiza. 5) Your graphic implies Alexander Schallenberg resigned related to People's Party's opinion polling scandal, when he did not resign and remained foreign minister. 6) Your graphic on the Social Democrats' polling numbers implies their decline is the result of Andreas Babler's leadership and political being unpopular when the decline you illustrate began around a year before Babler became party leader. I also think to call Babler the 'Austrian Jeremy Corbyn' is unfair to Babler considering the previous antisemitism crisis in the British Labour Party and Corbyn's links to political antisemitism.

[@ratatatuff]

Corbyn doesn't have links to antisemitism. It was a vile smear campaign. Apparently acknowledging that Palestinians are human and shouldn't be treated like garbage is considered "antisemitism" by some.

[@davegreen9331]

LOL, I read that as "Australia". I was like...what?

[@akiraraiku]

"Apparent threat of muslim immigration" have you been living under a rock in iceland the last decade ? As a frenchman, i am more than keenly aware of the fact that we are allowing through immigration hostile foreign enclaves to grow on our soil. But that is "apparent"-ly not a real threat. Bonus point at scrabbles if you also manage to get the words great replacement, a reality in some neighbourhood of our capital and a whole district of our country. A medium size city in it is self nicknamed by its inhabitants as "the second bamako", it being Mali's capital.

[@meretricioussimp7759]

holy shit the irony in that sentence... you do know all cities in the third world were called after names europeans gave after it, especialy places in americas were named new... etc.. in africa there are places with OFFICIAL colonial names like lagos and all of south africa still today. The irony..ohhhh the irony. The french have destroyed most of africa, and they still control all of the franchophone nations. They are the reason migrants are coming. After what the french did in algeria, what they did in burkino faso, so much more, no one in europe can cry bbbbbut we have to now see black and muslim people😭like its the worst tradegy of the century. French rn is sponsoring the killings of tens of thousands of muslims in gaza, but its a city in french having muslims that bothers u? how privleeged, how uneducated, how ignorant do you have to be to have such a broken moral compass and lack of selfawareness. When muslims have power, when they actualy have wealth, when they actualy oppress, then maybe you will have a just cause, but whişe white people control 99.9% od the wealth and exploit the south, your complaints of some poor migrants seeking safety from your countries actions is not going to be one of my worries and neither should it be yours.

[@florianwicher]

A fair assessment of the situation! What makes me hopeful is that our institutions do hold politicians accountable, and that corruption is punished by voters, which in turn leads to real change in the political landscape.

[@Jordan-ns2ov]

Here in NZ, hope you cover the nz general election coming up in 6 weeks

[@karankapoor2701]

Jacinda party will prolly win again ig

[@goenzoy]

Well as Austrian who did live the last 23 years abroad it is amusing to see this assessment . It is far too complicated and even incorrect at times . Austria did not change much in the last 35+ years It was a 3 party system ever since 1970 ties . Only % numbers changed so much that one party getting majority is impossible now. The rest are just there for decoration

[@Galaxy-oy4nj]

The FPÖ are so similar in what you described to SMER-SD in Slovakia. Constantly in scandals, ties to mafia etc..., people had enough and voted someone else only to return back to them...

[@ciaacho1]

isn't that depressing, how short-sighted voters are? Yesterday's scandals don't matter to them as soon as they are given a scapegoat and a sprinkling of empty promises.

[@zbynekurbanek3345]

thats funny observation because both in Austria and in Slovakia all the parties have scandals all the time. In Slovakia every party is some branch of the mafia. In Austria every party is corrupt.

[@Shebbi04]

I remember when the Ibiza Affair happened and Austrian politics were talked about more than German politics in German TV.

[@bearc903]

I am not quite sure you have the facts wrong about the party officials from the ÖVP that "had to resign" in the aftermath of Kurz' resignation: Eventhough Gernot Blümel officially resigned from politics and his post as Chancellor of the Echequer ("Finance Secretary"), there are reports of him being blindsided by Kurz' decision and somewhat 'ragequit' his office (similar to what Elisabeth Köstinger did), but I don't understand listing Alexander Schallenberg in here at all. He even became interim chancellor and resumed his position as foreign minister after a new chancellor had been assumed by the ÖVP. Can you elaborate on that please?

[@maris_26tm]

Yeah Schallenberg didn't put himself forward to become leader of the ÖVP, they elected Nehammer as their leader and so Schallenberg made way for him to become chancellor. Schallenberg did not resign due to "lack of support". I agree that listing Schallenberg next to Blümel doesn't make sense in the list of people resigning in the aftermath of Kurz' resignation, Gernot Blümel, Elisabeth Köstinger and Margarete Schramböck resigned shortly after his resignation, probably due to personal reasons, mainly because of Kurz being gone.

[@jean6872]

*This good report was ruined by a massively long advertisement at the end.*

[@cgt3704]

4:42 andvone of the least popular foreign leaders here in Romania for ..... reasons

[@TheHal90000]

On positive side, 3:30 let's appreciate that there are countries where PM's office can be raided by anti-corruption officers.

[@richardcorbally232]

I lived in Vienna for a year. The best run country I've ever been too. Why they want to radically change how they run things baffles me. An amazing country.

[@adineatha9766]

People nowadays are too idealistic. They have no clue how to keep up population growth and economy. Population is aging too.

[@antigonostiggokarchedonios4788]

Happy you enjoy your time in Vienna. Kind of surprised to hear your assessment on how it is run. As someone, who has grown up here our countries seems more like a perpetual dumpster fire of idocy and corruption to be frank.

[@silentkid2924]

You live as a tourist. That like go to cape town white only part and think the whole country is fine.

[@capslocked7274]

sounds like something someone would say that has only lived here for a year. Wages are stagnating, food prices are insane, to the point where beer produced in austria is cheaper in germany than in the city where its getting made. And the ÖVP shouldnt get away with their corruption just because "things are still nice in Austria" Im no friend of the populist FPÖ but as long as the Left parties fail to admit to their naiviety concerning immigration and welfare spending (homeless people literally travel across borders so they can be homeless in vienna some even arrive from germany), i can understand their rise in popularity.

[@KathyClysm]

Mostly, it's that people feel nothing's ever getting done (partially because things were fine to begin with but no "improvement" could be felt) so like many other countries, people are taking chances on non-standard parties cause "at least something will change"

[@My_initials_are_O.G.cuz_I_am]

I hope no failed artists get involved... this time.

[@hasselnttper3730]

Karl Nehammer wasn't wrong, you can resort to drugs and alcohol when times are shit 😂

[@liva236muzika]

5:53 HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA someone already started taking Nehammer's 5:09 advice.

[@andreaspapagreg6727]

nice to see some international coverage on this

[@popelgruner595]

Remember: Austria is the OG 'No no Germany ' not FR-Germany.

[@JMWZ_E]

From a German perspective and being able to sometimes watch Austrian television news it is truly unbelievably embarrassing what is happening in Austria. Kurz survived Ibiza because he quickly fired major FPÖ-members of his cabinet, leading to the resignation of almost all others except the independent but FPÖ-nominated foreign secretary who was notorious for having Putin as her wedding guest with an expensive present. Kurz was replaced by two interim chancellors, the second being a supreme court judge Bierlein (and first female chancellor) running a neutral expert government. That is why Kurz could run an opposition-like campaign against basically no incumbent as Bierlein was not running herself. Kurz second term as chancellor ended with allegations of "ad-corruption". A pollster had been paid (with government money, hidden in the budget) to create fake polls presenting the party leader of the conservative ÖVP as devastetingly unpopular. Austrian governments buy a lot of ads in newspapers who need the money because Austria is a small media market ... and no favors were called in and editors-in-chief extensively covered those fake polls. This triggered the resignation of the party leader and Kurz was asked to take over ... and said no. Until his conditions were accepted: the whole candidate list would not be decided by party conventions on state and local levels - but instead by him. He became his own party's dictator. The Austrian-German dialect knows the word "fesch" (=handsome), and his leadership was sometimes described as feschism. Resignation as chancellor is only telling half the truth ... he remained party leader. And more: the majority leader in parliament resigned to allow Kurz to assume the position. Chancellor Schallenberg was only a puppet chancellor, whose term ended when puppet player Kurz resigned his remaining positions. New chancellor Nehammer now unites the positions of chancellor and party leader, following the common pattern of a government party. The SPÖ-story is embarrassing in its own way. The first female leader in party history Pamela Rendi-Wagner, a doctor and former health secretary had constantly been critisized by Hans Peter Doskozil the party's only governor who had a coalition with right-wing FPÖ ... for years. During a meeting of the party executive PRW challenged that governor to have a membership vote who should lead the party ... she was sure to have the votes of the centre and left wings of the party with him only having the right fringe on his side. Rules were quickly written down, everyone think about a 1-vs.-1 race, there had not even been rules for a run-off. In the upcoming days 73 people declared to run, even neonazi non-party-members and a journalist nominated a giraffe. So quickly rules were added who would qualify for running ... in the end 3 candidates were left: PRW, Doskozil and small town mayor Andreas Babler (that corbyn-like guy). The membership vote (with a none of the above option) returned Doskozil leading, Babler second and PRW third. The latter had announced if she would not finish first, she would withdraw. It took some time to decide that plurality is not enough and that a party convention should decide whether Doskozil or Babler should become leader. The party convention used four ballot boxes, each result was counted correctly (with one exception of a miscounted abstention that lead to a journalist's rather technical question), those partial results were added with MS Excel, Doskozil was announced as a winner. One day later, answering that journalist's question, that party HQ looked into the partial results and the Excel spreadsheet ... they were horrified to learn that partial results had accidently been flipped when entered into the spreadsheet. And that Andreas Babler was the elected party leader, which was confirmed by another recount ... and followed by significant resignations by party HQ staff. So what should have been a strong opposition party from the democratic spectrum is now labelled as the party that is too stupid to count ... I think in Germany we've had a decline in political culture, especially on the federal level since the government moved to the new capitol Berlin. But being able to compare without a language barrier, I'm constantly shocked by news from Austria. And those two main paragraphs were just about the moderate main parties. The FPÖ is horrifying in its own way, including a home secretary using the police to raid the domestic intelligence agency also seizing classified material and not securing it properly ... leading to severe trust issues by similar agencies in other countries. That person is now party leader. PS: Strache was not "vice-president" but "vice-chancellor", being the deputy for the head of government, not the head of state. His role could be compared to Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister, being the smaller coalition partner's most important representative within the cabinet while not having a significant ministerial portfolio. At least, Strache was responsible for civil service and sports. In Germany the Vice-Chancellor is also the "Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action" (German "Minister" = British "secretary). PS2: Covering Austria the umlaut-letter "Ö" is worth learning. It is present in each main party's name, and also within the name of Austria's state holding ÖBAG which is part of further Kurz-scandals. It is pronounced like the vowel or diphthong in the French word for "2" (dEUx) or the name of the Swiss city (but French-speaking) of MontrEUx. But I really enjoyed the video. Always remember: if nothing else happens in Europa, Austria will always have a recent scandal worth covering. But Germany is not perfect either, we had the ugly "2020 Thuringian government crisis", based on the 2019 election. With 5 year terms (and promised snap elections that never happened), 2024 will be the year of regular elections that might lead to a very difficult situation. In the state of Thuringia, the party "The Left" holds its only governorship, while being on the brink of exctinction on a federal level (5% threshold), at the same time a former party leader's wife Sahra Wagenknecht who has been thinking of founding her own party for months, is ahead in fictional (Thuringian) polls ... in which she would far-left "The Left", far-right Afd ... but diminish establishment parties to only a third of all seats. While Germany is mainly producing more or less stable federal governments, this is only partly true for state governements -and Thuringia is definetly a state to watch ... closely. I do welcome your critical eye on my own country.

[@ImJustVale]

Whats your opinion on the AfD?

[@JMWZ_E]

@@ImJustVale I truly think, these are horrible people. Founded 10 years ago they have an impressive list of former leaders who immediately quit their party membership because each of these leadership changes meant a further shift to the right. And they have a secret leader who avoids running for federal leadership but commands serious convention majorities driving that shift to the right. Instead he is the leader of the state party in Thuringia and played a role in the mentioned government crisis. Next year's East German state election might produce very difficult results with government formations without the AfD demanding huge coalitions. The conservative CDU has a federal party convention resolution to enter neither cooperate with the AfD nor with communist/socialist The Left. The fact that these two parties won more than 50% of the seats in the last Thuringian state election was the reason for that crisis and the reluctance of some Thuringian state MPs of the CDU to obey they resolution already forced a CDU federal leader to resign. The states of Western Germany are quite stable and so is the federal level with ~80% of the votes coming from the West; but Eastern Germany might see several very unstable minority governments in the near future.

[@ImJustVale]

@@JMWZ_E Sehr guter Beitrag! Durch Sie konnte Ich noch etwas dazulernen, danke! Die Familienhistorie meines Vaters hat die Wurzeln im Westen, und die meiner Mutter im Osten. Beide Seiten haben mit den Nazis, also NSDAP Mitgliedern, damals Geschäfte gemacht. Sie waren gut vernetzt und hatten Militärischen Erfolg. Meine Familie besitzt, so weit Ich weiß, ein Eisernes Kreuz (ohne Hakenkreuz, glaube Ich😅), oder etwas ähnliches. Heutzutage sagen beide meiner Familienhälften dass sie die AfDler und Rechten bzw. Rechtsextremen oder sogar Neo-Nazis (will den Begriff nicht verharmlosen/normalisieren wie es viele machen) verabscheuen und ächten. Dies macht es für mich noch unverständlicher, warum die AfD so einen Erfolg verzeichnen kann. Meine These wäre, dass die Wähler jene Rechtsextremen Politiker und Ideologien ignorieren, und schlichtweg weiterhin denken, dass die AfD eine "gute" Alternative ist. Die AfD ist in Wirklichkeit leider nur eine Alternative für Menschen, welche sonst nicht zu wort kommen, weil sie zu viel Stuss von sich geben, den jeder normaldenkende Mensch sofort debunken könnte. MfG, Vale.

[@jesseberg3271]

An *Austrian* is accusing the EU of being the most aggressive military alliance that ever existed? He must have slept through the part of history class where they talked about the Axis Powers.

[@lubormrazek5545]

Beer party is my new favorite thing

[@rnelson299]

I like how one of them is literally a communist yet he is more concerned about the right wing guy

[@BenAuer-x8i]

That doofus was vice chancellor. We dont have a vice president

[@bennypr0fane]

Dude, Schallenberg is still Exterior Minister. He only briefly resigned from that post for stepping in as Chancellor.