Greetings Dialog International readers. I'm a long-time reader and admirer of this blog, frequently commenting as "Ludwig". David has graciously allowed me to become a guest blogger. So let's get started!
Last month Austria held parliamentary elections.
The results represented a major setback for Chancellor Schuessel's center-right People's Party (OVP), which is ideologically similar to Germany's Christian Democrats. By a narrow margin, the Social Democrats became the strongest party in the Austrian parliament. Meanwhile, smaller parties such as the left-wing Greens and the competing right-wing parties (the Freedom Party and Alliance for the Future of Austria) scored concrete gains. The Alliance, led by the infamous nationalist Joerg Haider, is a new nationalist party that recently split off from the Freedom Party (best known for its anti-EU and anti-immigrant positions). The Alliance just barely made it into parliament with less than 5% of the vote.
The Social Democrats (SPO, led by Alfred Gusenbauer) did not gain enough seats to form an historic center-left governing coalition with the Greens, although they edged closer to this goal then ever before. Mathematically speaking, the only possible coalitions are a "grand coalition" between the People's Party and the Social Democrats or the continuation of a center-right coalition between the People's Party and the two right-wing nationalist parties. But since a right-wing coalition has been ruled out both by Schuessel and his potential partners, a "grand coalition" of the OVP and the SPO is the only realistic option. After several weeks of fruitless "negotiations", it seemed likely that a new vote would take place. However, it is reported that the two parties have finally agreed to begin coalition negotiations.
This means that Austria, like Germany, will likely be governed by a "Grosse Koalition" in the coming years. This coalition is not unusual in Austria--indeed a SPO/OVP coalition governed Austria for most of the postwar years. However, it will be interesting to see if a SPO/OVP government will result in a return to more "social democratic" policies, given that Austria has been governed by Schuessel's right-wing coalition since 1999. What sort of policies would a SPO-OVP coalition pursue? Hopefully we'll know more in the coming weeks. As in Germany, the key point of contention will likely be the chancellorship. Gusenbauer is probably the leading contender, but perhaps a compromise candidate will emerge.
When will someone finally drive a stake through Haider?
Posted by: David | November 17, 2006 at 10:05 PM