Austrian Voters Put Austria First - Election Results from Austria

Austria held a national election today and the Austrian People's Party (OVP) has come in first, putting 31 year old Sebastian Kurtz in position to become Chancellor and Europe's youngest leader.

The OVP has historically been a centrist party on the model of Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats. And like Germany, Austria has been ruled by a 'grand coalition' of the left leaning Social Democrats (SPO) with the OVP as junior partner.

But ever since Angela Merkel threw Europe open to any 'migrant' that wanted to come, the migrant crisis and Islamification has become issue #1 in Austria. When Kurtz became OVP party leader, he pulled the OVP out of the coalition government, triggering today's election. He also repositioned the OVP in opposition to open borders and granting migrants and foreigners (including EU citizens) social welfare benefits. He applauds Hungary's Victor Orban for building a wall on Hungary's border with Serbia, calls for less regulation (particularly from Brussels) and for lower taxes.

The OVP came in first with with 31.5% of the vote. The further-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) appears to have come in second at 27.4% and the formerly-ruling Social Democrats third 26.7%. But the second and third spots aren't final yet, it's apparently down to counting mail ballots. But whatever happens, the victory for the right is unmistakable. The Greens, formerly a small but influential left-wing party in Parliament, have apparently received no seats at all. So the parties of the right appear to have beaten the parties of the left by 2/1. All thanks to Angela Merkel and her tremendous blunder.

Kurtz will need to form a coalition government, and speculation is that will be with the FPO which shares many positions in common with the OVP. Given that he's already taken the OVP out of coalition with the SPO and re-branded the OVP with positions very different than theirs, it's exceedingly unlikely that he will turn to them.

Kurtz doesn't favor a British style withdrawal from the EU, but he favors less EU control of Austrian affairs. He appears likely to position Austria along with Hungary, Poland and the Visegrad group, adding to John Claude Juncker's headaches.

Interestingly, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria, the German Christian Democrats' sister party, who have been bleeding supporters to the AfD, are talking about Kurtz's remaking of the Austrian OVP as a model for the CSU as well. The CSU are already setting demands (like an annual migrant cap) on their continued participation in Germany's ruling coalition. So Angela Merkel's getting worse headaches herself.

Austria's foreign minister declares victory in election, set to become Europe's youngest leader | Fox News

https://www.thelocal.at/20171015/sebastian-kurz-europes-youngest-leader-in-waiting

 

The Czech Republic just held their elections and the Ano ("Yes") party, led by an unapologetic Czech nationalist who has been dubbed the "Czech Trump", just won a solid victory in a fragmented field.

With close to 99% of the votes counted:

29.7% ANO
11.3% Civic Democrats (a centrist party)
10.8% Pirate party (a left-millenial protest party)
10.6% Freedom Party (dubbed "far right")
7.8% Communist Party
7.3% Social Democrats (formerly the ruling party, their worst result ever)

Given the comparative success of protest parties, Czech voters obviously weren't happy.

Czech election: Billionaire Babis wins by large margin - BBC News

If there's any doubt about what this election was about, Mr. Babis is on record as saying this

"The biggest added value of the European Union is the national identity of each country...

We have to fight for what our ancestors built here, If there will be more Muslims than Belgians in Brussels, that's their problem. I don't want that here. They won't be telling us who should live here."

The repercussions of Angela Merkel's and John Claude Juncker's blunders continue to be felt.