Most of the readers of this blog are not from Europe, let alone Austria,
the country I was born in. As such I’m not sure how many will actually
care about Austrian politics here, especially if it’s a lengthy post. But
I would still like if you read it because I think the topic is important
and not just because of Austria. Our problems here are not just ours,
they are a general issue that affects all of Europe and the western world.
So since you are probably in no way familiar with Austrian politics or the
situation in the country I want to give you a brief overview. Austria has
recovered very quickly from the war torn country it was after World War 2
and emerged as one of the most powerful economies of Europe if looked at
on a GDP per capita basis. It underwent a conversion from an agricultural
country with some tourism attached to being dominated by the service
industry and producing technology and parts (the economical tree map looks
confusing because it’s so heavily diversified).
However as great as the country has developed after the wars and as
profitable the creation of the Eurozone was, there was an end to this
positive trend and it came with the financial crisis of 2007/2008
(although with a bit of a delay). The economy did recover, but it did not
do it to the extent people wanted. At the same time necessary reforms
were not implemented (or not implemented in the right ways) and as a
result the country has suffered major blows in the last few years. From a
personal point of view I cannot stress enough how disappointed I am that
many of my collegues went to other countries and started their companies
there or work there. But it would be foolish to blame politics on this
alone. This is as much a problem of politics as it is a problem of
culture.
We now reached the point where cheap and populist ideas like reducing
social welfare for non citizens gets popular support. In this environment
right wing parties emerge and this sunday Austrians will probably elect
the first right wing leader of the country since the end of World War 2.
But politics not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is
the erosion of civilized discourse in Austria and I think in all of
Europe. A large part of the general public are unable to have civilized
discussions on the bases of facts and instead conspiracies and emotions
take over and this is something that extends to politicians in Austria as
well.
The Symptoms and Problems
If you look at the emotional state of the country you can see a few
symptoms and problems that help the populists to raise to power:
-
Inability (or unwillingness) to learn and understand how Austria and
the world changed in the last few years. I think this is a big one of the
people who want to leave the European Union and do similar crazy things
to the Austrian economy. We’re so intertwined with it, that I doubt
anyone can predict what would happen as a consequence of leaving it. -
Comparing things that cannot directly be compared is a very related
problem. As an example the Euro might have been a mistake for Germany
but that does not mean that the Euro was not a profit for Austria. We
were pegged to the Mark before, for us not much changed. If anything the
situation improved because we’re an export nation and our export partners
are other European countries and if they also use the Euro they cannot
harm our exports by devaluing their own currencies.But despite the fact it’s so very hard to compare countries because they
are so fundamentally differently structured – yet people will still do
it in conversations. Switzerland is heralded as the great example of
continental Europe in Austria but it’s so specific out of history that
it’s incredible hard to copy or imitate. -
Not being able consider the other side. I am shocked sometimes what
people here in Austria think the US are like. The idea that both
Europeans and Americans might have very similar fears or hopes for TTIP
for instance does not seem to exist here. -
Fear of change. I think this is a typical Austrian problem but to
smaller extent it probably exists elsewhere too. Everything new is
torpedoed until it cannot be avoided any more because every single other
country already did it before. That applies to smoking bans as much as
to embracing of credit cards, online services, acceptance of
homosexuality, Sunday shopping, flexible working hours and much more. -
Broad categorization. I think Austrians are masters at giving
good/bad labels to large masses of people based on some categorization
instead of considering the individual. Refugees are either good or bad,
the industry is good or bad, corporations are good or bad, immigrants
are good or bad. That individually a refugee could be good or bad is
impossible to comprehend in the general discourse and if someone does
bring it up, it often gets dismissed as an outlier. -
Inability to give credit. This is particularly a problem in Austrian
politics. It’s one party against the other and never ever would a ruling
party give an opposition party credit or the other way round. Likewise
would social democratic voters never give conservative parties credit
for something or the other way round.
The Root Causes
But what causes this behavior? I think Austria’s history has a lot to do
with it. In the recent history there were conservatives versus social
democrats. Combined with the fact that after the war Austria emerged not
only as a loser but also has one with a lot of baggage due to the support
to national socialism and the complicated way to deal with it after the
war. As such the population was always split in two on this level.
However they could unity at least somewhat by voting for one of the two
large centrist parties. Because the country was doing really well, there
was no reason to reevaluate this.
However when disaster struck this rift became bigger instead of smaller
and particular with this upcoming presidential election only the most
extreme candidates made it into the run-off. Voters did not vote for
people they believed in as much as they voted by using tactics against
predictions. This now has lead to one the ugliest pre-elections I have
seen.
Politics are no longer about doing the right thing but defending
principles, even if they are completely unfounded. Even though everybody
says they have the best for Austrian in mind everyone is so stuck to their
own opinion that not a single meter of compromise can be achieved.
Newspapers paint scary pictures of the different outcomes of the election,
how the country will be torn, how one candidate would mean European
sanctions and how the other candidate would mean the end of a functioning
society.
A Path Forward
There are clearly many things wrong in this country but so is it
everywhere else. We’re not alone with the changes in the world and we
cannot fall back to local solutions for these problems. But likewise can
we not pretend that problems don’t exist. This behavior of ruling parties
has helped the rise of the populists. It does not help to pretend that
immigration without integration does not contribute to problems in
society. We need a more honest approach with more talking to each other.
Just a few days ago we got a new chancellor and he has indicated that
he wants to end the course of confrontation his predecessors had. This
has been supported by all other parties other than the right wing FPOe. I
hope they reconsider and also want to constructively work together with
the rest of the government to lead the country forward and to restore a
positive way of thinking rather than the fear that has been going around
for the last years.
This however is not something that is a problem that needs to be solved in
government. This is a problem that we as people in that country have and
we need to talk to each other more. If we talk more to each other I hope
it becomes clear that we share many core values, we just don’t always
agree on all of them.
And to my friends in Austria: please vote. But more than that: please
accept that if the outcome is not what you wanted, that it does not mean
the end of the country as you know it.