Thank you, Margy. I'm finding that working with a new team colleague challenges me to clarify a lot of my day to day whys.
100%! Orban's playbook is one that FPÖ has certainly studied. I would love to be surprised tomorrow but of all the parties, the FPÖ have had the most imaginative and compelling visual campaign. Their messaging has been slick and clever. More positive than threatening. They understood the assignment.
Again, it's a country that deeply invested in its own comfort. I think the remigration idea is one that appeals to the most fearful but realistically, too many industries, especially tourism, are absolutely dependent on long and short term immigrant labor for it to become actual policy.
In at least a couple of provincial governments, the FPö are in coalition with the Volkspartei. Increasingly, the Nazi past is seen as deep history, no longer relevant, even if the legal structures still punish open expression of those ideas. EU-wide, the far right are on an upswing.
The Far-right option in Austria has traditionally carried about 20-25% of the popular vote. What's changed is that the mainstream parties have failed to campaign to win; only to scrape by. The tendency to wait for a charismatic figure to emerge (like Kurz) remains in place. 😑
This is actually excellent reporting. I definitely see the trends described here and note the failure of the social democrats and the greens in particular to generate any sort of substantial progressive mobilization among voters of any age. Thanks again for the link!
Thank you so much!
Grounds to celebrate all around! Congratulations! 👏🏽