European political development?

Since the elections for the European Parliament earlier this month the shift to the right, not only in Austria but also in other regions and countries in Europe, was confirmed by official figures. But what to do now?

It was a big exclamation when the dutch results of the elections were announced a few days before the elections took place in most of the countries of Europe - the right-wing party PVV gained almost 17% of the Dutch votes. At this time it seemed that these results are an alarming herald for the total results in Europe. Later in the elections week this trend in the Netherlands was proven true for whole Europe - the social democrats had to sustain heavy losses, the christ democrats lost just slightly but the right-wing parties all over Europe attained solid growth. The Austrian FPÖ could almost double their results compared to the 2004 elections but nobody seems to care because obviously it's more interesting for the 'Krone-nation' that H.P. Martin has won as well more than 3% compared to 2004. But that's not surprising because in fact there's one man who's ruling this country, Hans Dichand, editor of the 'Kronen Zeitung' with it's 41,9% range of coverage in 2008 in Austria. He published a campaign for Martin, et voilà. That's politics in Austria!

There has been an interesting media reaction on the election results in Austria. The Austrian television ORF for example tried to constitute the FPÖ results as a failure because they aimed to triple their results of 2004 but didn't make it (I've never thought I would ever have to write that, but: Thanks to H.P. Martin!). That doesn't speak for the often claimed independency of the ORF but this was probably the best they could do for the country in this situation.

There was another interesting development as a reaction on the European elections in Vienna, Graz and in Innsbruck. It seems that people solidarise against the right-wing and go out into the streets to confess that for example in the course of demonstrations like the Lichterkette organised by two female students where about 3.500 people in Vienna and 600 people in Graz demonstrated for more diversity and against the shift to the right in Austria.

It's quite sad that demonstrations like the Lichterkette just react on developments like the shift to the right but it's amazing what can be achieved in this way. More than 4.000 people is quite a lot for a demonstration organised by two girls with just a little support of a handful newspapers and radio stations.

Now it's time to change something! Let's get it started by kicking Nazis like Martin Graf out of the parliament!