Austria
Reports on Austria See all →
Austria: Kurz and the crisis
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has surmounted several serious political challenges so far, including the dissolution of his ruling coalition over a media scandal and the formation of a new alliance with the Greens. However, the pandemic may have provided him temporary respite by obscuring issues that will resurface once the political debate shifts from the health crisis to thornier matters.
The lessons from the last 100 years of Central Europe’s history
The emergence of new nation-states from World War I was hailed as a triumph for self-determination, but the destruction of democratic empires that held them previously hardly brought peace and prosperity to the continent, especially Central Europe.
Central Europe is not less European or less democratic
Parties unfairly labeled “euroskeptic” and “populist” have won elections in Austria and the Czech Republic. But they only want to preserve sovereignty and regional diversity. Western Europe likes to look down on Central Europe as nationalist and backward, but the real political problems in Europe stem from established parties’ headlong ...
A Europe of regions will be essential for the union’s future
At this historic juncture, leaders of the European Union should awaken to the fact that Europe’s strength has always been its common cultural heritage and its diversity. The way out of the EU’s current bind is through expanding regional cooperation and replacing centralistic, market-strangling regulations with robust, friendly competition.
Democracy by fear
To the European political establishment’s great relief, Norbert Hofer barely lost the Austrian presidential election. However, most of the people who voted for the winner, Dr. Alexander van der Bellen, were likely motivated by the campaign of fear against Mr. Hofer. The trend of “democracy by fear” in Europe reveals ...
