Last Sunday, there were the Austrian general elections for parliament. I took it upon me to wait for the results until about 2 am.
Personal opinion: On the one hand, it’s not good. Not good at all. We now have – with high probability – a right-ish OEVP chancellor who is definitely populist, and with 31 years has no experience in anything whatsoever, except for being a party member, which was the only reason he became foreign minister the last time. I’m worried.
On the other hand, it could have been worse: At least the very far right guy with friends in all the other far right parties in Europe only got as far as third place. Just. So, even though it is highly unlikely, there is a chance that the SPOE social democrats – now at the second place – will form another coalition with the OEVP.
And then there is the green party, which will not be a member of the next parliament any longer, after 31 years. I think this is well-deserved by this green party, due to all the BS they managed to do in the last half year at least. Unfortunately, this also means that the opposition is not very strong anymore, which is not good for the country as a whole.
Anyway, we’ll see where this will go. I have received already a number of questions and comments from Japanese friends around here (who will vote for their own parliament next Sunday, by the way), and I gave them the following answer: Well, I already emigrated…