Fear and Loathing in Europe
Two far-right parties won 29% of the vote in the latest Austrian general election, double their total in the 2006 election. That result – and the parties' anti-immigrant, anti-EU rhetoric – is certainly unpleasant, but their success, like that of far-right parties elsewhere in Europe, reflects legitimate popular frustration with entrenched elites.
Two far-right parties, the Austrian Freedom Party and the Movement for Austria’s Future, won 29% of the vote in the latest Austrian general election, double their total in the 2006 election. Both parties share the same attitudes toward immigrants, especially Muslims, and the European Union: a mixture of fear and loathing. Since the two parties’ leaders, Heinz-Christian Strache and Jörg Haider, despise each other, there is little chance of a far-right coalition taking power. Nonetheless, this is Adolf Hitler’s native land, where Jews were once forced to scrub Vienna’s streets with toothbrushes before being deported and killed, so the result is disturbing. But how disturbing?
Two far-right parties, the Austrian Freedom Party and the Movement for Austria’s Future, won 29% of the vote in the latest Austrian general election, double their total in the 2006 election. Both parties share the same attitudes toward immigrants, especially Muslims, and the European Union: a mixture of fear and loathing. Since the two parties’ leaders, Heinz-Christian Strache and Jörg Haider, despise each other, there is little chance of a far-right coalition taking power. Nonetheless, this is Adolf Hitler’s native land, where Jews were once forced to scrub Vienna’s streets with toothbrushes before being deported and killed, so the result is disturbing. But how disturbing?