The Age Demanded

It is April the 24th 2016 around 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Austria’s population is in tight anticipation of the first results of the presidential elections, including myself. The TV host is taking a nervous look in his colleague’s direction. Something seems off about the scenery. „Ladies and Gentleman, prepare yourselves for a new political era.“ I immediately stop chewing on my early dinner. I take an anxious glance into my father’s direction, but his eyes are peeled to the TV screen. The next thing I see is 35,1% and a great amount of the colour blue. Norbert Hofer, the candidate of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), is elected first place, followed by the left wing oriented Alexander Van der Bellen with 21,3%. In the meantime, I lost my appetite. I leave the room, too disappointed to watch what is about to follow. I simply stare outside my window and it seems to be an ordinary spring day. I’m trying to recall a poem by Ernest Hemingway but I can’t remember the exact words. Was it "the age demanded"?

The percentage of FPÖ voters increasingly found themselves ranked at second or third place in Austrian elections of the past ten years. Not necessarily taken seriously by the social democratic (SPÖ) and conservative (ÖVP) party, which have made up Austria’s government for decades. Despite politicians being aware of a possible rise of the right wing party again after 71 years, initiatives remained untaken. The reliability on Austria’s population voting traditionally for the SPÖ and ÖVP left the government in an inactive almost numb stage.

Far right presidential candidate Norbert Hofer; courtesy of profil.at

It is one thought that tricks us all, put straight by the New Yorker Journalist Adam Gopnik:

“The national psyche never gets over learning that its institutions are that fragile and their ability to resist a dictator that weak.” Even with Mr. Hofer being elected president, there seems to be very little imagination of the probable power of far right. How many times does someone drop the argument “they will never be able to enforce that”? It is the “national psyches” disbelieve that gets us in such a dangerous place.

With the federal elections 2018 the FPÖ is gradually approaching total control of Austrian political affairs. There will be hardly any institution powerful enough to counter right wing influence. It is required to take a close look at what we take for granted. Since it is inevitable to operate within institutions in our every day lives, we will feel the changes. In the five-year-coalition of the ÖVP and the FPÖ, striking damages were made to Austria’s welfare state, everyone was so proud of during its blooming period in the 70s. The damages made by the government back in 2000 primarily consisted of financial catastrophes, still remaining in, for example, the Hypo-Alpe-Adria crisis today.

So even if there predominantly is the argument that it might be necessary to finally experience how the right wing party is performing as a government, we have to take into account that structures will be destroyed and the state of Austria, how we know it today, will no longer exist. Ironically, the structures we live in today are what the FPÖ was able to take advantage of. In the end all right wing had to do was sit back and wait patiently for their day to come.

The new President of Austria Alexander Van der Bellen; courtesy of faz.net

Again: It is May the 22nd 2016 around 5 o’clock. Austria’s population is in tight anticipation of the final results of the presidential elections, including myself. What I see is something that I didn’t let myself hope for anymore. Nobert Hofer achieves 50,2 % while Alexander Van der Bellen achieves 49,8%. As the day progresses the percentages vary minimally, making non of the candidates a definite winner. On the next day, around 4 o’clock, it’s official:

Alexander Van der Bellen triumphs over his right wing rival with round 31.000 ahead.

But it doesn’t feel like winning. It doesn’t change any of the facts: Almost 50 % of Austrian voters chose Norbert Hofer as their preferred president; a member of a student fraternity with a national-socialist mindset. It is not a day that I let myself be proud of Austria. It is the alarming sign that two extremely differently minded majorities live within in this country, preferring two parties that couldn’t be any more diverse.

And for some reason I cannot stop trying to recall Hemingway’s words. All of the sudden I can remember them clearly:

“And in the end the age was handed

The sort of shit that it demanded.”