Two German states, Saxony and Thuringia, held elections on September 1, and for the first time the whole world was talking about regional elections in Germany. The reason is clear – a wave of extreme political options still threatens Europe.
The threat was calmed at least temporarily in France, when all parties united against the victory of the National Front, the extreme right led by Marine Le Pen.
However, just a few months later, AfD’s fantastic results in these two German states reminded Europe that the toxic ideas of the extreme right are very much alive.
The AfD may not be in power, but they have a third of the representatives in both parliaments. Truth be told, both states are located in the east of Germany, traditionally more conservative and prone to extreme political options, but this is by far the best result of the AfD, and also of an extreme right-wing option in Germany since the end of the Second World War.
If we also take into account the growth of the populist right in Slovakia, and the sovereign power of Viktor Orbán in Hungary, it is obvious that Europe is sliding towards the normalization of radical right ideas. We will see the first test of this theory on September 29 in Austria.
Namely, Austrians will go to the parliamentary elections and probably elect a new government. The current ruling coalition consists of conservatives from the OVP, a party led by Sebastian Kurz for a long time, and the Greens, an environmental party that came to power at the national level for the first time.
According to current polls, however, the FPO, a party that definitely belongs to the far-right wave that has been threatening Europe for years, is in the lead.
It should be said that, nevertheless, there is a contrast between the AfD and the FPO, in the sense that the FPO is a party that has been in power on several occasions (1983-1986, 1999-2005, 2017-2019), and it is considered how many- so much less radical than his colleagues from Germany.
However, the FPO is a party with extremely toxic views on politics. First of all, their ties with Russia and the authorities in Moscow are solid, and the proof of that is the so-called the “Ibiza Affair”, the scandal that brought down the government in 2019.
Then several FPO politicians were filmed talking to the niece of a Russian oligarch about awarding public tenders in exchange for positive coverage of the party. The video was made in 2017, and it was published two years later, because of which the conservatives, then partners of the FPO, broke the coalition agreement, called elections and basically collapsed this party, which lost 20 seats in the Austrian parliament.
In addition, the FPO has numerous conspiracy theorists in its party, and their special topics are immigration and the Covid-19 pandemic, that is, vaccination against this virus.
Of course, it is difficult to talk about the FPO without mentioning the connection of this party with Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska. The leaders of the FPO and Dodik met several times, and a high-ranking member of this party attended the celebration of the unconstitutional “day of the RS”, that is, on January 9. In addition, several officials of this party have supported Dodik’s secessionist tendencies in the past.
In any case, the FPO is now the favorite to win the elections, and bearing in mind that they were still in power in the past, as well as the fact that it is difficult to expect the Greens to enter power again, it is a realistic scenario where the extreme right will be part of the ruling coalition in Austria.
The only scenario where the FPO could remain in the opposition, if predictions based on pre-election polls are fulfilled, is the so-called “grand coalition”, i.e. the cooperation of the KLA and the social democrats from the SPO.
By the way, this coalition ruled Austria from 1986 to 2017, with a break from 1999 to 2006. Relations between KLA and SPO are not at the best level, so this situation is also unrealistic.
If these two parties fail to agree, it is impossible to see a government without the FPO, which could be a worrying move and a step towards further normalization of radical ideas in Europe.
The fact that Germany will hold general elections next year, where the AfD expects its best national result in the history of the party, is enough of a problem for the continent.
That is why it is worth hoping that the “classical” parties in Austria, but also in other countries in Europe, will be able to overcome their problems and form coalitions against the extreme right, which is definitely the greatest danger to the Old Continent, Klix.ba writes.
