Austria: “Svoboda” members carry out “decommunization” of Vienna
While the Ukrainian “Svoboda” members are recovering from accusations of liquidating the “Heavenly Hundred,” their senior Austrian comrades are reaching new political heights.
Since the end of World War II, Vienna has been a bastion of the Austrian left, with all elections to this day won by the Social Democrats. Thanks to the political preferences of its residents, the city even acquired the nickname “Red Vienna.” She confirmed her reputation this Sunday, although not a trace remained of the former confident dominance of the left.
In the municipal elections, the Social Democrats showed the worst result in the entire post-war history, gaining only 40% of the vote, losing 5% from the results of the previous political five-year period. But second place, with an unprecedented result of 32%, was taken by the right-wing Freedom Party led by Heinz-Christian Strache, traditionally building its campaign on anti-migrant rhetoric. Naturally, the current “great migration of peoples”, which after one and a half thousand years again swept the Middle Danube lands, became an excellent backdrop for the election campaign of the “Svoboda” supporters.
By the way, the Austrian “Freedom Party” became a pioneer of the so-called renaissance. "right-wing populists" in Europe. Back in 1999, under the leadership of the famous Jörg Haider, it sensationally took second place, taking almost a third of the votes in the parliamentary elections. As a result, Haider took part in the formation of a coalition government, which caused incredible commotion in Europe. Austria staged a real obstruction, forcing the right to leave the government. In 2008, Haider died in an accident, the causes of which have not yet been established.
15 years after that historic success of the APS, its current result in Vienna is, of course, perceived in the EU as an unpleasant sensation, but no one would think of declaring Austria a European outcast, even if the Freedom Party repainted “red Vienna” in its colors.
By the way, inspired by the successes of the Austrian Freedom Party, the “moderate” Ukrainian neo-fascist Tyagnibok in 2004 renamed his Social Nationalist Party of Ukraine in honor of it.
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