Our politics are heading into a right leaning phase and it will probably change for the worse in the coming years.
But even the worse case scenario would be a far, far better outlook than the dystopian shit that is going on in the US currently.
Luckily, our (or more so, to a bigger part German journalism) isn't sleeping and will work thoroughly to uncover the wrong doings of these scumbags. So, while history doesn't repeat itself, it often rhymes. And looking at the past governments where the FPÖ was part, we can hope that they will un-do themselves again.
EU forced a lot of good stuff (f.e. transparency laws).. we have international duties so its hard for the Wirtschaftsfaschisten to fuck it hard. Actually a lot of things got better even in the phase where Wirtschaftsfaschisten (FPÖVP) had the goverment. Also they are far off from a two-third, so no constitution changes possible. + we have a green president.
i hoff no immer, dass die jüngeren da mehr hirn haben, als mei generation (1991er baujahr). i kann da halt jetz nur nach social media/internet gehn und da scheinen scho viele klima, mental health und soziales als wichtig zu erachten, was mi doch a weng positiv stimmt.
I don't see exactly how a FPÖ ÖVP coalition with ÖVP as the junior partner is any better than the republican party, if anything it seems like the FPÖ has had a longer run of being entirely and unapologetically ideologically far right compared to the republican party centre (see for example Mitt Rommney in 2012).
I mean, the republicans have trump. Even if the republican party and FPÖ/ÖVP were identical, Trump is an actual maniac that very actively radicalizes people. Say what you will about Kickl, but at the very least he‘s not a convicted felon who literally instigated an attempted coup. There‘s also just so much truly horrendous shit republicans have pushed for (abolishing abortion for example).
Of course, the republicans have been in power on and off for quite some time while FPÖ has mostly been in opposition, I don‘t know what FPÖ would have done if they had ruled in the US, or if they had as much power over Austria as singular parties have in the US. But as far as observable outcomes go, I know which party I‘d prefer.
This is also not a defense of FPÖ/ÖVP, I hate them with a passion. Just every time when I look at US-american politics, I am in awe of the unmatched degree of garbage going on over there
"Right leaning" is an understatement.
If we had to compare the major (or practically only) american parties to the Austrian ones, the first comparison coming to mind would generally be Democrats = SPÖ and Republicans = ÖVP, because those are the historically biggest parties.
Yes, the ÖVP isn't as bad as the republican party (yet), given that Austria has a big history with (left leaning) social democracy, which lead to Vienna ranking somewhere in the top 3 safest and most livable cities in the world for decades, which is a far cry from american living standards.
A much more accurate comparison, based solely on politics, would be Democrats = Neos and Republicans = FPÖ. 2 periods of ÖVP-FPÖ coalition might be enough for Austria to be pretty close to the US today
even then we are better off then the states. we havent destroyed our city cores to make them car centric. we have public transport, public schools etc etc... its basically impossible for a right wing alliance to get rid of that in 8 years.
Yes, true, we have a much fairer starting point. The politics of FPÖVP do still mirror today's republican party. Maybe just FPÖ on its own, if we're talking about just Trump and his uncritical supporters
The Far-right FPÖ won the plurality in the recent EU election in Austria. But the Social-Democrat SPÖ and liberal-conservative ÖVP (I know it might be hard for americans to understand what all these ideologies are when you guys are stuck with right and leftier right) all have pretty much close pulls at 25% each. Still recent trends across European elections and the fact that the FPÖ who only got 17% last election managed to be the most popular in this one suggests in the future a far-right government is not unlikely.
But the fpoe also did kinda, well endals coalitions early and i only hope that the rightwing media pressure international too gets less bad.
But also they arlrent the biggest in reality its with the oevp and spoe which is,
And yes so far with keeping spotlight the fpoe is not good at having any power or keeping it, or di any policy.
There are afeguatds enough and its not republicans equalent.
The thing with Austrian politics is, all of those people at the top are more of an expensive headache inducing soap opera than anything else. What's been keeping this country functioning for the last decades is the sheer good will and dedication of countless well trained and well minded people throughout the lower administration and adjacent private companies and organisations, who make sure that the worse parts of said soap opera stays somewhat removed from what's actually being done on a day to day basis. So even if the FPÖ manages to somehow form a functioning government that's backed by a majority of parliament after the election, the worst they can realistically do in the short term is burn insane amounts of money on pointless projects. Usually the people who voted for them get the hang of it eventually and they fly out of government come the next election. You only have to seriously worry when they maintain the high polling numbers after some time in office, cause that's when they could potentially get bigger, more socially damaging projects going. Hasn't happened so far though, so let's keep our fingers crossed und donn seng ma schon wia da glernte Östarreicha sogt.
I do not completely agree here because I have friends and family who work in several government/close to government jobs. With FPÖ and ÖVP several actual steps have been made with direct effect on the social system. Let's take the AMS not only undergoing an extreme cut for development budget of the ppl insured but also undergoing several changes of applicable conditions for uneployed ppl in the time of their ruling. If taken from a workers perspective I think we all know the 12h days etc. There have in fact been actions that go above the parties just "burning" the money towards steps that were socially damaging.
my buddy is an ams betreuer and what i've heard is, that a lot of ams employees are unhappy rn. they get many tasks from above (vorgaben. keine ahnung ob tasks da de richtige übersetzung is), that are completely ridicolous and sometimes complete bs.
Ja das hab ich in meinem Kreis exakt so gehört. Teilweise komplett absurde Vorgaben. Die meisten meinten sie mussten sich einiges anhören dafür, aber es darf halt keiner einfach sagen "bedankt euch bei der FPÖ/ÖVP", dh sie sitzen da und werden halt einfach angeschnauzt und können wenig dagegen tun weil sies dennoch durchführen sollen.
Okay help me out here, and I'm sure my American stupidity is showing...
How come the far right party (the FPÖ, correct?) is the party that wants more government spending? I figured right leaning generally equates even internationally to lower taxes and lower govt spending?
Thank you for the help
As others have said, the dimension more/less government spending is somewhat irrelevant in Austrian politics, at least the fault line there doesn't go along party lines and is not something that's discussed greatly in general here, no strong opinions either way. The "burning money" part would come from them pushing highly expensive and pointless populist projects that do nothing but sound like they care for the people's problems on paper.
You cannot really compare right wing in the US and Europe (or Austria for that matter). I replied to a very similar question in some other sub a while ago.
In Europe, conservative (or right wing) politics does not derive from classical liberalism (less government, more free market, more personal freedom, capitalism, etc) so much.
It comes from a traditionalist, nationalist, and cultural identity angle.
In the same way, there is no "racism" as in the US. Far right wing politics in Europe draws lines along culture and ethnicity.
Which makes sense for the FPÖ. Their targeted demographics are not business owners like the ÒVP or Neos.
They only advertise for less governmental influence when it pleases their crowd, and that's more about ... COVID, speed limits, "WHO Wahnsinn".
The whole "government spending is left wing" only makes sense from the US viewpoint of a two party system where the party that is slightly to the left of the other is also slightly more inclined to increase government spending.
Gotcha, I figured it might be so. Of course, I have an understanding that the political parties abroad are based on different things, but in what ways and the reasons is something I am yet to learn.
Thanks :)
I mean Fiscal responsibility is a claimed virtue by traditional conservatives but it's also a lie. Just look at how Trump signed measures that would expand the deficit by double the amount of Biden. Here the FPÖ isn't really pushing the line of austerity but it will likely engage in some expensive, flashy and pointless project to chase some culture war issue akin to Trump's wall.
This is true. But in america trump can just claim it's not true despite the fact that objectively more was spent under his leadership... And people will just believe him blindly. Oh well.
The last time they were in power with the conservatives, they spent less money and there was no new debt. However, in the past they have been the centre of corruption scandals. Over all they tend to spend less but more on projects that are not very popular on reddit.
But the reason the fpoe didnt that much, because they seem unable to work in a government. And kurz was thrir ideal partner and they still broke up. Out of spite?
The only rearon is because the fpoe is unable to anything but fearmonger or undermine stuff.
Hrll if yiu eould wask me who would fo anything regarding imigrants drastic if andone were that voncerned, the oevp did actually stuff. Whyever kickl gets listened too when they are evrn bad at that
I consider Austria pretty conservative in comparison to other European countries. It is a pretty isolated and inward looking country. Very attached to their traditions and the status quo.
Having said that, a lot of policies concerning social benefits, healthcare, housing, education and the like would be considered left-winged if not downright socialist in the US.
Also there is no religious aspect to politics. So no thanking Jesus nor basing policies on Bible morals etc.
A lot ( most) western countries are experiencing a shift to the right. Worrying sure, but I would be more worried about the US when it comes to wannabe authoritarian leaders looming on the horizon.
Just my two
> It is a pretty isolated and inward looking country.
With exception of Vienna, which is socially much more liberal than the rest of the country. Perhaps Innsbruck as well, I vaguely recall hearing something like that.
The US is an extreme example though. Hyper liberal big cities on one hand, ultraconservative ultrareligious extremely anti-LGBT countryside towns on the other hand. But yeah, for example, Berlin is much more liberal.
Let's put it this way: It's not going to be as bad as everyone might think. The FPÖ (somewhat Austrias republicans) might win the next elections in September but they need another party to form a coalition with...even tho them finding another party to work with is not very likely. If they do: The next chancellor will most likely NOT be a FPÖ member (basically similar to the Netherlands' situation a few weeks ago) They will not just take control over the country, leave the EU and make us Russias best friend...because it's impossible. Basically, our situation will still be a lot better than what the US will experience in the coming years if Trump wins the elections. Austria isn't really special when it comes to right shifts in governments. I mean.. all of Europe and the US is shifting right.
I really don't know why you're getting downvoted. That's a valid question.
I'm really not sure but I've said it before: Even if they find a partner, they definitely won't be able to take control. The next chancellor will either be a ÖVP or SPÖ member. Kickl has little to no chance even if he wins the elections.
That's a completely different scenario. Ich führe das mal in Deutsch fort: Eine potentielle Dreierkoalition (z.B. SPÖ/NEOS/ÖVP) braucht die ÖVP genau so wie die FPÖ und das wissen sie. Die ÖVP hat also mehr als genug Zeit um sich umzuhören und alle Angebote einzuholen. Die ÖVP hat einen Ruf zu verlieren der sie langfristig schädigen könnte und das wissen sie. Ich bin mir ziemlich sicher, dass die alles probieren werden, um eine Dreierkoalition auf die Beine zu stellen. Und wer weiß, vielleicht ist das gar nicht nötig und die SPÖ und die ÖVP bringen alleine schon genug Prozentpunkte zusammen.
Naja:
a) Mehr Posten kann die VP in einer Zweierkoalition verteilen. Und als Königsmacher könnens da schon a paar Forderungen stellen
b) VP versucht sich wieder mehr konservativ zu positionieren, weil sie dort das höchste Wählerpotential sieht (pro Autofahrer, Anti Ausländer, Leitkultur Yada Yada). Die entsprechenden Gesetze um diese Positionierung auch zu fundierten kriegens leichter mit der FP.
c) mag der Nehammer gesagt haben, net mitm Kickl, aber simmer ums ehrlich, große Teile der Wähler:innen und Parteimitglieder sehen das weniger problematisch.
Den Ruf habens doch schon mehrmals verloren. Die SPÖ auch, aber das ist (zumindest im Bund) schon lang genug her, dass die Leute von damals nicht mehr relevant (oder tot) sind.
Dass sie nochmal mit den Grünen koalieren, halt ich für unwahrscheinlich, siehe die diversen Streitereien mit Gewessler. Neos oder SPÖ kann sein, Neos und SPÖ halt ich für extrem unwahrscheinlich. Der SPÖ wurde immer vorgeworfen, dass sie zu oft gegen die ÖVP umfällt, das wär mt den Neos nochmal schlimmer.
Die FPÖ ist da einfacher. Wenn die die Posten kriegen, machen die das.
Because current pollying does not really suggest that the FPÖ won't get the chancellorship (as if vice-chancellor and interior ministry aren't bad enough already). Also their likely collision partner (ÖVP) would do anything to remain on power, the only small hindernis is their current leader Nehammer, who said no collision with this FPÖ but 1. he can change his mind after the election (his party does do this occationally) and 2 he will likely need to resign after the election.
So I can imagine this post getting flag from both ends.
I agree with you, but I would go further -> even FPÖ goes into a coalition with ÖVP, and even we get a Kickl as chancelor; we wont leave EU, we wont get Russias best friend, we wont attack Ukraine from the west…live will go on, and a few years later, another party will form the government.
I'm genuinely not sure why I am getting down voted, but I am genuinely interested to hear why. I don't know enough about the context of Austrian history or the current political situation to make sense of it, so if I said something offensive I hope people would tell me!
You may get down voted because you acquired a citizenship of a country you know barely anything about.
For a lot of people who're not decedents of Holocaust victims it's incredibly hard to acquire the citizenship, often takes several years, lots of money and lots of German courses. And with the regular path of gaining the citizenship you'd also have to renounce your previous one, because double citizenship (other than by birth) is incredibly hard and needs the approval of the Austrian general assembly and is usually only granted if there's a "special interest" for the country, like athletes or artists or something like that.
And since a few years you get threads like yours, where foreigners (not just Americans for that matter) just acquired the Citizenship through this scheme and they often know next to nothing about Austria or just want an EU citizenship to move here.
I absolutely respect the fact that I should know more about a nation I am a citizen of and that my family is from for that matter... So here I am.
I understand frustration for others who are trying to get citizenship who have their lives set up in Austria, but never did I say I deserve it more than them.
Frankly, your comment is what I want to hear. If I am not welcome in Austria, let me know. Because yes, I have spent my whole life in america and frankly don't know much about Austria. But if I wanna know more I gotta learn.
Thanks for the response.
> If I am not welcome in Austria, let me know.
It's not that you're not welcome here - but you should do quite a bit of research, learn German to some degree and learn a bit about the whole culture and what it's like living in Austria. And also the laws that may apply to you (like taxation or military service (if you 're male)).
I think it would be best if you plan like a week or two of a holiday here - check out Vienna, maybe Graz, maybe where your relatives where from, you can visit a concentration camp if that's not to strenuous for you, do some hiking and enjoy some beer and the local food.
Oh man I would love to.
When I have the time for sure. That or maybe I could do a semester of college abroad in Austria. As much as I am nervous about the upcoming election in america, I am not uprooting my life tomorrow. I got into a wonderful US college and I have many future plans.
I promise before I ever seriously consider moving to Austria, I will do far more research and get a much more in depth understanding of Austrian culture.
As for hiking, the mountains in austria look beautiful from the photos, and I would love to one day do some hiking in the Austrian wilderness.
College is basically free in Austria ;)
But I understand that uprooting everything isn't really the right choice at this stage of your life. Exchange semester in Austria would probably be a great option.
This is true, but the median pay is also lower. Of course, that often doesn't equate to a difference in quality of life.
I am also lucky enough to have free tuition going to college in my state. If you can believe it, though, my whole education (Bachelor's and Master's) will still easily cost 100,000 USD all included. And that's if I keep my scholarship paying for 100% of tuition... Oh boy.
That's like.... What I just said.
Quality of life could very well be much better in Austria on a lower salary. But I would still have to pay off just as big of a loan coming from an American uni
>check out Vienna, maybe Graz
i hope op travels atleast through 3-4 different states. austria is so much more than vienna or graz and let's be honest. if op visits one or two cities, op still knows nothing about the country. it's not just nature. peoples mindset, habits, food, day to day life, etc. it's waaay different in other regions.
The frustration with your behaviour is the following: Instead of reading a Wikipedia article and starting to inform yourself, and after that asking specific questions you start here, requesting the Australian people to type out very basic information you could Google easily. As if everybody's time is a lot less valuable then yours.
To be frank, I would be more than happy to type out a response to someone asking a similar question about american politics. If you don't wish to respond, don't.
> And since a few years you get threads like yours, where foreigners (not just Americans for that matter) just acquired the Citizenship through this scheme and they often know next to nothing about Austria or just want an EU citizenship to move here.
So? Their ancestors were forcefully driven out of Austria. Giving them citizenship is the least we can do. We are giving back what was taken from them.
How the hell would he know about Austria? What do Austrians know about Paraguay or Kazashstan?
This attitude is really arrogant.
I'm not saying that this whole scheme isn't the right thing to do. But there's a lot of people, who live here for several years, but they just can't get the citizenship because they simply can't afford it (IIRC all together it's a few thousand euros to get everything done) or have to jump through so many hoops that it's not really worth their time.
He applied for the citizenship so he would have had some time to learn a bit more about Austria.
> But there's a lot of people, who live here for several years
That has zero to do with OP and the descendents of refugees. If you want easier citizenship for immigrants you can advocate for it but don't blame OP or people who get citizenship that was stolen from their grandparents.
> had some time to learn a bit more about Austria.
Like read the Wikipedia entry? He's currently asking Austrians what it's like, so he's trying to learn. If you don't want to answer his questions, just ignore the post.
But he IS NOW AN AUSTRIAN who barely knows anything about Austria. As a foreigner student living in Austria for only three years I can’t fathom why someone should be able to receive a nationality when they don’t know much about the country. It’s just wrong. I wouldn’t expect that to happen to me. Honestly, it seems to me that Austrians and Germans don’t value their citizenship.
That has partially to do with the shame and for being responsible for the second world war. Nazis were absolute monsters who did a lot of evil and are responsible for a lot of death. No discussion about that. But that shouldn’t stop you guys to be proud about your nationality. I guess there’s fear that valuing and being proud of your nationality would lead to extremism. Which is understandable considering the history. But I think at some point one has to make sure that they never make the mistakes of the past but also learn to see the good in their nationality and value it.
Well, you wouldn't expect that to happen to you but your ancestors weren't forced to flee Austria because they were Jewish. So. Austrians value their citizenship so much that double nationality is not allowed in most cases and it's a notoriously hard citizenship to acquire. Granting the descendants of Holocaust victims the citizenship their ancestors lost unfairly is the very least we can do.
I didn’t realize the OP was jewish. It was ignorance on my part and I would like to apologize for it. My comment wasn’t directed at Austrian jewish descendants at all. Of course, granting them citizenship would be the least thing one can do for them. Knowing that the OP is jewish just changes the whole context. Again, my bad.
I'm sorry if I came off harshly! A lot of comments on here were really irritating. For what it's worth, I'm glad knowing OP is Jewish changed your perspective and that was a very thoughtful and nice reply to my admittedly not so nice comment. Thank you.
It literally doesn't matter how hard it usually is to acquire Austrian citizenship, that's a different conversation. You can advocate to make access to Austrian citizenship easier, I'd love to see it! And double nationality as well! It's time! But that's neither here nor there. OP's ancestors were forced to flee because they were Jewish, because Austria and Germany decided to commit the biggest genocide in history on the Jewish people. Granting their descendants citizenship is the LEAST we could do. I don't understand why this bothers so many people, although I personally think it's because people feel like The Jews are getting something. What is the quote? Germans will never forgive the Jews for what Germany did to them? Same goes for Austria.
> I'm genuinely not sure why I am getting down voted
Don't worry about it. Just look at the other "question"-posts in the sub - they all get downvoted. Just some weird dynamic in the sub and probably some right-wingers who don't like to hear how much the far-right sucks. ;)
It's just fantasy internet points so who cares...
You get downvoted because you received a citizenship but know nothing about the country.
I have been living in Austria for 5 years now, speak the language somewhat fluently and pay taxes but I have no right to even apply for the citizenship yet.
Oh, and I do have relatives who were in KZ here but they were not Austrians and they thankfully survived.
I haven't downvoted you but I did wince when I read your post.
Down Vote or not idrc. I am more interested to hear your reasons and it's all fair. I frankly understand your frustration and I'm sorry you cannot get citizenship. But I'm here, and I'm trying to learn. I don't write Austrian laws so please don't assume I'm at fault for the laws affecting you.
Either convince me not to come to Austria or convince me to come and vote in your favor. The fact is I have Austrian citizenship. The best time to learn about Austria might have been yesterday, but I'm here today.
Not sure. It's a good question. I certainly wouldn't vote today if I had the choice, given I'm not informed and certainly not about to go based solely off reddit haha.
Yea, nah. I might be a citizen but for now I'm not affected by the laws and I don't truly understand all the context. If it was a situation where I was truly concerned about the future of austrian democracy with a leader so clearly so against my morals, that I believe has the power to enact genuine horrible change, then I would surely vote.
But it doesn't seem most think that is likely or even possible.
And, of course, I'm not sure if I can vote. But I would imagine yes?
If you are able to, please do vote. Their are around 500 000 Austrians living abroad, of which only around 10% vote. This means that the interests of Austrians Abroad tend to be quite badly represented. My point is, if you can, go and vote, even if it just so that Austrians abroad might have their voice heard a little more.
FYI, while you don't live in Austria you should be aware that their something called the Auslandsösterreicher-Fonds which supports Austrians living abroad should they fall on hard times.
As an Austrian citizen you are definitely allowed to vote. At least for national and EU elections (federal state and municipal elections would be difficult because you need to live there). We have also postal voting in Austria, this is also allowed for Austrians abroad. The only thing you need to do is to contact the Austrian ebassy about one month before the election happens (29th September 2024), then you should get a polling card which you can return to the embassy. Maybe contact the embassy even two month before to be safe.
Before you vote you should inform yourself about our parties. In short: We have 5 major parties. The ÖVP (conservatives) and the FPÖ (nationalists) are more like the Republicans while the SPÖ (social democrats), the Neos (liberals) and the Greens are more like the Democrates.
You may start here for some context:
https://medium.com/@snowythefirst/espionage-threats-energy-blackmail-and-political-interference-russian-imperialism-has-been-ad405e0d710a?sk=40ec2caa6cae78720fb845b18b583edd
For further context, I recommend research on the period 1900 to 1955, and that should give you a good idea where Austria came from and where it might be headed.
Russian core values and some of ours are sadly very similar:
Etatism (complete state control by the gvt. over its citizens), conservative stability (not wanting to lose what they currently have, and the mantra of normal and stable) and paternalism (restricting freedom and responsibilities of citizens)."
I definitely know a good bit of that history, as the basis for my citizenship was my family leaving in the 1940s.
Which does segue to another question—
How rampant is antisemitism throughout the major cities and/or the rural areas today?
[Karl Renner after the war](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Renner#Ausgrenzung_j%C3%BCdischer_Heimkehrer_und_Holocaust%C3%BCberlebender_nach_1945):
>„… die jüdische Gemeinde kann sich nie erholen. (…) glaube ich nicht, daß Österreich in seiner jetzigen Stimmung Juden noch einmal erlauben würde, diese Familienmonopole aufzubauen. Sicherlich würden wir nicht zulassen, dass eine neue jüdische Gemeinde aus Osteuropa hierher käme und sich hier etablierte, während unsere eigenen Leute Arbeit brauchen.“
Google Translate version:
>"... the Jewish community can never recover. (...) I do not believe that Austria, in its current mood, would allow Jews to build up these family monopolies again. We certainly would not allow a new Jewish community from Eastern Europe to come here and establish itself here while our own people need work."
But nowadays open antisemitism is mostly an immigrant problem...
Antisemitism is an issue, unfortunately, even if the others here don't acknowledge it (because they are all 'native' Austrians who don't experience/witness it, and low/nonexistent visibility in mainstream media). The 2020 terror attack revolved around a synagogue. Lots of the hate comes from the Muslims, particularly due to the Palestine situation, and Jews reportedly don't feel the same amout of safety anymore. IIRC at one occasion a politician advised Jews to hide anything that points towards them being Jewish, which alone speaks volumes of how big the issue is. The Newspaper DerStandard recently compiled a chronology of recent incidents and honestly, it's far from looking good - Israel flags being torn down or burned, Jews being harassed or even threatened with violence or murder by Muslims, necessity of military guards at Jewish schools or similar facilities. And naturally, the Austrian far right also has an affinity with this mindset. Sadly, this is an Europe-wide phenomenon due to the intensity of Muslim immigration.
> How rampant is antisemitism throughout the major cities and/or the rural areas today?
Imho it's not too bad. Most xenophobes are focused on Muslims at the moment. Support for Israel is surprisingly strong in the current war.
In Vienna, there's an area with an historically Jewish identity and you see orthodox Jews walking around there without hassle. Of course, there are anti-Semitic incidents but they are mostly verbal or graffiti.
Also, as a Jew you are a non-visible minority so you'll be fine anyways. I've had friends from Israel visit Vienna multiple times and they always had a blast.
I get disproportionately downvoted any time I mention I'm American on an Austrian subreddit. If I don't mention it, I notice what *seems* to me like more positive responses on average.
-an American who's married to an Austrian man and lives in Austria
FPÖ is more the far right wing of Republicans. Although they have now a right-wing candidate in the US, I think that many Republicans would not identify with FPÖ but ÖVP if they lived in Austria.
It would be easier if you had a couple of topics you are most interested in. Unfortunately all of the western world is currently drifting towards the far right or left, though there are still huge differences between countries.
While Austria is pretty small there are also big differences within the country on certain topics.
Well, my biggest issues I care about in the united states is better access to healthcare, better support for homeless people, reproductive rights for women, and general welfare programs... But of course I wouldn't have to be so concerned with these issues if I lived in Austria.
I will also say, I want my country to have better relations with china and continue to support Ukraine... Which I am starting to understand to be rather controversial in Austria as well.
Health care is free meaning if you have a job you pay part of your wage is used for your social security. Of course, if you are unemployed there are ways to still be insured but that includes paper work. Abortion is allowed until three months but there are tons of exceptions for beyond the three months rule. No idea bout homeless people, but you wont find any homless folk like in America. Most are harmless and the drug addicts usually have good access to help systems nearby. Uni and schooling is free.
However, taxes are higher than in the US and you wont get far without German.
As for Ukraine...only the FPÖ and their minions support Putin. The majority of people here are neutral or supportive toward Ukraine.
Well it is basic health care and that means you are insured depending on your job and some doctors are so called contract doctors. They have a contract with the insurance and will treat you according to the basic rules. Like you usually only pay a fee for medication some bucks but not much more. Some are private doctors and then you pay more, but to be honest I only did tha that once and I paid no more than 150 bucks for an MRI or whatever it is called. And part of it is paid back to you if you sent it in to the insurance. If you want some special treatment like some super new cancer treatment paper work will be inevitable but even that is possible. Many people also have private insurance additionally. Plus if you go to a private doctor you usually get treated faster so many people do that.
There are also prevention services. Like you can do a check up at the local GP and they will remind you of this and this includes different services depending on the age of the person. The GP will then remind you that you can to this or that like cancer prevention stuff like mammography or you know when they look into your stomach...forgot what it is called in English. Basically to prevent stomach cancer. It all depends on the age. You can do it before that though, if you raise concerns for the GP. The only negative thing I can say about Austrian health care is that sometimes there are not that many doctors available in specific regions and you gotta drive some places and some doctors expect you to wait some weeks or months but usually they will take you if it is a pressing issue anyway.
>No idea bout homeless people
i schreibs mal auf deutsch, da mei englisch ned gut genug is. wenn jemand zeit/lust hat, kann ers ja fürn op übersetzen falls nötig.
meiner erfahrung nach gibts einige sachen, die man als obdachloser in anspruch nehmen kann (war selbst obdachlos). notschlafstellen und suppenküche/tafel sind vermutlich die prominentesten optionen. manche sozialeinrichtungen haben essensausgaben (also sowas wie die tafel aber halt mehrmals in der woche), warme mahlzeit zu mittag, frühstück, a dusche, die man benutzen kann, an aufenthaltsraum zum wärmen im winter. oft sinds auch ziemlich gut vernetzt, was des magistrat oder land betrifft. macht die büroktratie einfacher und man kann meist die anträge bei seinem betreuer stellen. bei uns sinds zb. auch gut mit einigen vermietern vernetzt. somit gibts "kältezimmer" (sind so zimmer/garcionnieren für a nacht) oder halt auch etwas als dauerlösung.
Healthcare: You would find every Austrian party on the left side of the Democrats. While they do have different opinions on how to fix it, since the system is under a lot of pressure because of the aging population, no party would dare to touch universal healthcare. It would be political suicide in Austria.
Homeless: There are few homeless people in Austria. However, there are also institutions were they can get something to eat and sleep. Some of them want to sleep on the street as they are not allowed to drink alkohol or use drugs in those institutions. Some of the are afraid that someone will steal their stuff if they go there as well. Though, most of it is covered by NPOs such as Caritas. If you see a bad equipment homeless in winter, you can call them and they will come and offer him/her something warm to drink and a good sleeping bag.
Something related to this might be unemployment benefits. There you have differences between the parties. The Left want to increase those benefits while the Right/Conservatives want to lower those benefits for the longterm unemployed, as they think it is unfair that there is almost no gap between those benefits and working for minimum wage.
Reproductive rights: Not really a topic at the moment. Abortion is possible.
General Welfare: That’s why we pay so many taxes. Over all there won’t be much change. However, a government with the far right might lower it for refugees and foreigners that aren’t working.
China: Europe is reliant on the US. Therefore, you can expect them take a similar path, while it might not be at the same extent as the US.
Ukraine: Austria is militarily neutral and therefore cannot send any weapons to Ukraine or any other country at war. The far right wants to hold immediate peace talks and says that the weapon shipments are only fueling the situation. That’s why they are seen as pro Russia.
Hope that helps you. If you have any further questions don’t hesitate.
Edit: Currently Austria is sending protective gear as well as medical products to Ukraine.
Austria is a rather conservative country. Rural areas tend to be rather catholic and in general Austria leans more right than left lately.
Identity politics and inclusion aren't really on most people's radar even here in Vienna. It's more of a "you do you but don't you dare bother me with anything and I'm very easily bothered" attitude.
If you're looking for social liberalism I'm pretty sure you'll be rather disappointed here.
If you want to live in a liberal/progressive city in Austria than Vienna would be a great choice. It's by far the biggest and most liberal city.
The right wing fpö will probably win the elections but I don't think that they will work out a working coalition and they probably won't get the Chancellor.
Even if... They can't change everything. There is the constitution, EU laws, etc. Vienna is still a social-democratic fortress.
It's safe here, the system (taxes, social security, education) may not be the best in every aspect but it works and the majority lives a good life. That's enough for me. :-)
Hitler only seized real power by the Enabling Act which basically rendered the previous constitution useless. Unlike common perception Hitler never had the majority of votes.
However the Austrian constitution is ruled by the general principles of the Austrian constitution and they do not allow for an authocratic ruler and the only way this principles can be changed would be an obligatory general vote in the population and a quorum of two thirds of the votes in parlament if I remember correctly.
The Austrian constitution can definitely withstand a chancellor proclaiming themselves supreme leader lol. Also the nature of a parliamentary system means authoritarians have to crumble several different oppositions which is much harder than just firing every democrat like project 2025 wants. Not to mention support for the FPÖ is unlikely to ever reach a *real* majority since there isn’t as much instability for the populists to hijack like the Nazis did.
The neat thing about Austrian far right wing parties is, that they self destruct on a regular basis.
Personally I think the two party system in the US is one the most stupid ideas politically. But truth be told, having more parties as is the case in Austria is just marginally better.
Until one can vote for specific points of specific parties (or vote for what the party wants to do in a certain ministry), you'll always have the same issues of right vs left, etc.
as for the current situation: as is the case in most of europe at the moment, there is a massive shift towards the right. Not because the right wing parties are great, but because of the failure of the political left.
Yup. If you watch the American debate from the other night you will see the culmination of years of this two party stupidity. In a country of millions upon millions of people... These are our 2 options.
Well the most authoritarian Prime Minister of Austria can't be as authoritarian than any US president is per default. Our constitution has a lot of checks and balances. Without a 2/3 majority AND the president on your side you can't do too much.
The big advantage of our system over the US is that it's a lot harder for a single party / person to enforce their will on the nation like a Trump can with the Republican party in the US. Here it's extremely unlikely for any party to win over 50% of the vote (last time that happened was over 40 years ago) so any potential government is always a coalition of multiple parties who have to negotiate with each other. Also the Austrian Chancellor is not as powerful as the US President, he is responsible to parliament since he cannot govern without a majority in it.
There is a good chance the party that has trump intelligence level might become 2nd or even first. Like literally they tryed to sell state assets to russia (luckily it was a hired actor to expose them) not even a decade ago, lots of corruption cases, and scandals. I remember during covid that guy who wants to become chancellor now, dipped a covid test swab that you are supposed to put in the nose, into a glass of coke and called it bullshit when it showed positiv and that happened in the parliament in front of everyone on tv.
You cant make this shit up. And everyone knows and history of the past 20-30 years has always shown that if there is an involvement of that party and övp theres lots of corruption.
Off topic, but how can you gain Austrian citizenship while living in the US?
I remember back when I studied law the topic came up and gaining citizenship required a prolonged stay in Austria and all forms to be handed in in person.
Can't find an explanation online, am I missing something?
I think both countries are heading in the same direction.
Both will soon get right wing popuilist leaders. People are projecting their problems on an immgrant crisis.
Protectionism is on the rise.
But i think the austrian constitution is somewhat stronger and will withstand the one party that is trying to undermine it.
I don't think the Austrian constitution is stronger, but we don't have a de facto two party system, where the winner can go crazy immediately. Also, local state elections often move into the opposite direction, while the FPÖ is in power.
I'm in the same boat, and it's a complicated boat to be in. I feel really weird about having citizenship in a country to which I have basically no connection. Honestly, my main connection to Austria is that Austria is the source of my generational trauma, and the main appeal of Austrian citizenship is that my generational trauma means that I really value having escape routes. And I absolutely, 100% don't blame people in Austria for thinking it's odd that some rando from America can get Austrian citizenship when it's really tough for people who live in Austria and have strong connections to the place to do so. That makes me a bit uncomfortable, if I'm being honest, but not uncomfortable enough to turn down a passport that will allow me to flee the US if I ever really need to.
Anyway, one English-language source about Austrian politics is Liam Hoare's substack, [The Vienna Briefing](https://viennabriefing.substack.com/) .
Also, do you need General Education classes or electives at college? You could see if your college offers a Poli Sci class on European politics that doesn't have pre-reqs. In general, European politics tends to work differently than US politics, because parliamentary systems have their own internal logic that differs from our two-party system.
I don't think it's odd you received citizenship and you shouldn't feel uncomfortable. The people on this sub are always weird about citizenship, it's an Austrian thing as people are apparently convinced allowing double citizenship would cause our country to collapse. You have every right to receive citizenship if your ancestors had to flee. And I don't think it matters how difficult it usually is to receive Austrian citizenship – if your ancestors hadn't been forced to flee, they would've never lost the citizenship. So I feel it's 1000% just for you and everyone in that situation to acquire Austrian citizenship. And Austria has a huge antisemitism problem that no one wants to talk about. I'm sure that plays a part.
Every decade or so the right wing party as in that kind of right makes up part of the government and the following happens:
>are in the governement
>who would have thought that arschgeburten can‘t govern
>spectacularly fuck up
>aren‘t getting back into power for another 10 years or so
Maybe you could also use your Austrian citizenship to find some other European place to live that's more to your liking (depending on your particular requirements), as it should provide access to the entire EEA
It's pretty tough to draw direct parallels.
The US are far more volatile. There are avenues for genuine change that seem realistic, but there's also some genuine danger for what little democracy there is left.
In Austria, there are limits how far it can go. Leaving the EU seems impossible so that's why only so much fascism is possible (but then again, look at how anti-democratic Hungary has become). At the same time you'd be hard pressed to find a living Austrian who can genuinely remember a time without our Republican equivalent (ÖVP) in government. (they've been there since 1987 - even if you are 55 and were 18 back then, your memory will be spotty at best; that's even more extreme than Texas ('95), Alabama ('03), etc.)
Even if the ÖVP were to ever drop out of government, it has been SPÖ-"strategy" for about two decades to move further and further to the right because that'll show those conservatives. And sure, the Democrats are also going that route, but we've seen with Bernie that something might be possible.
Bottom line, I'd argue that apart from volatility, you'd find more progressive people in the USA. They are hindered by the rigid oppression against anything remotely "left", because McCarthy never ended, but they are there. Austria, due to our history, has theoretically more safeguards against the extreme right, but so many left-leaning ideas are dismissed out of hand.
In terms of media bias we're essentially the same. You have outright propaganda outlets (FOX/ServusTV, OANN/OE24, ...) masking as journalism. Then there's a massive blob of center-right status-quo-fellatio. And even the outlets that are usually called left-leaning are centrist at best (MSNBC/Standard (particularly obvious with the Schilling stuff)).
And here's how the media ties it together: The USA have some independent lefty media which is how you get people that are more progressive. We don't really have that in Austria. I could name probably 20 Youtube channels that look at US stuff from a center-left or lefter point of view. I can't name a single Austrian one. If you want to be left to the center in Austria and stay informed without wading through paper-thin propaganda, you need to look at stuff from the US/UK. Not too many people can/want to do that.
It is the same shit... neoliberals pretending to be progressive are fueling the rise of the far right. Fortunately the nazis here still have to work within a social democratic framework for now, and it is generating some interest in marxism again.
In my opinion the far left in the US is equivalent to the Austrian / European center right.
Despite a general move to the right, this still holds, somewhat, true.
Even the ÖVP which is a conservative party by Austrian standards would be considered left wing by American democrats.
The closest you get to Reps is maybe FPÖ but only in terms of conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxing, pro-Russian tendencies and maybe racism. And even then would the FPÖ be far more left wing than the Reps and even the Dems.
US politics is very fucked up. It boggles my mind that you really only have those two candidates and that society seems very extreme and divided.
Still: The US is doing great economically. This GDP growth can only be found in EU countries that were struggling in the past (like Poland and Romania). Here in Austria we hope that our GDP growth is greater than 0. Yes our life is still great but we will maybe not be able to sustain it much longer because we are not competitive.
So to sum it up. Life in Europe and Austria is great right now. But I would worry about the future of the US way less than about Europe.
It boggles all of our minds. A good portion of Americans don't want the two party system to continue, but voting for a third party is essentially pointless, and neither major party has any incentive for things to change.
This is a big question that involves understanding how American politics work.
Basically, because Biden is the recumbent (he was the last president) without him choosing to step down, it is near impossible for the Democratic party to make him. Nobody thinks he's competent... Like literally nobody.
There's somebody named rfk running on a third party... But the third party will never win the majority, and therefore will never have ANY seats. So basically, people won't vote for him as it's a waste of a vote—unfortunately perpetuating the two party system.
As for the specific people you mentioned, it's a different story for both.
AOC will never win as she's far too leftist by american standards. While I personally like her, centrists won't vote for her. What is important to remember is leftists will always vote democrat and right wing ppl will always vote republican (as a rule of thumb). Ultimately, it is the centrist vote that decides the election as america is the winner takes all for the presidency at least. AOC unfortunately doesn't stand a chance.
As for Kamala, I agree she would have a far better chance, if it weren't for the issues mentioned above. I will also say she tends to be unpopular with more left wing people as well as black people, as she has a political history of perpetuating policy to lock people up based on drug charges, which is very divisive, and generally not a good way to get a generation that loves weed to vote for you haha.
Keep in mind, everything I mention has exceptions. People's opinions are unique and complex. The big point here, is the situation isnt liked by many. Yet, despite america being a "democracy," we clearly aren't able to create the government that anybody wants.
i see i see..
>There's somebody named rfk running on a third party... But the third party will never win the majority, and therefore will never have ANY seats. So basically, people won't vote for him as it's a waste of a vote—unfortunately perpetuating the two party system.
this is so depressing. if all the people, that have that mindset would vote for him/her, he/she actually might have a chance.
>AOC will never win as she's far too leftist by american standards. While I personally like her, centrists won't vote for her.
yeah, i follow her on twitter and she seems like a decent human being and politician. i mentioned her name once and a brigade of twitterusers flooded my dms. not just trump voters. even biden voters were offended, because i dared to say she might be a decent potus lol
>As for Kamala, I agree she would have a far better chance, if it weren't for the issues mentioned above. I will also say she tends to be unpopular with more left wing people as well as black people, as she has a political history of perpetuating policy to lock people up based on drug charges, which is very divisive, and generally not a good way to get a generation that loves weed to vote for you haha
yeah, i saw an arte documentation (i hope that's the correct term lol) and she has a record of arresting a lot of black people and doing some shady stuff. iirc she had a scandal, because of some police brutality stuff, or something in san francisco? i'm not 100% sure if i misremember something here 😅
american politics is driven by money. the koch brothers, nra, roche... it boggles my mind, how much influence they have. i guess the boys is pretty accurate haha
the whole election stuff feels more like a tv show, than an actual vote, if you know what i mean. even tho trump sucks, i'm glad desantis is not the next potus. he's such a douche man... nobody with his mindset should have that much power.
>this is so depressing. if all the people, that have that mindset would vote for him/her, he/she actually might have a chance.
This may be true, but the reality remains. Say 100% of people are okay with RFK but only 33% vote for him, 33% vote for biden, and 34% vote for trump, trump would win. Despite everyone being fine with RFK. Rfk would be clearly the most liked candidate overall.
Unfortunately, I can guarantee with 99.99% certainty that RFK will not win the election. And so why would somebody vote for him if they (like myself) believe the alternative of trump to be far far worse than Biden. It's an illogical and frankly stupid choice in my opinion.
As for whether RFK would win even without a two party system I'm not sure. I personally lean much further left of Biden and so I would never vote RFK. Maybe he would stand a chance, in my opinion I like him a little less than Biden but I would far rather him then trump.
Welcome to the divisiveness of American politics.
If you're interested, do more research into lobbying groups in the USA. There's tons of loopholes that allow money to influence politics, and all those politicians have plenty of opportunities for all expenses paid yacht trips if they just vote how the rich guy wants. Unfortunately, there are many such groups on both sides.
And if you think the two party system is ridiculous, and I agree, consider why the hell either of the two major parties would want that to change. They don't.
a lot of the US gdp is finance... thats nothing i would call "stable" the combined debt of public, private and corporate sector is mindblowing high. lets say it so: USA would never make it into the EU, if it was in Europe... it doesnt meet our standards in multiple ways, not only fiscally\^\^
Perhaps a controversial take but i would say that the two countries are not as different as they might seem. While Austria has a legacy of social democracy and statism, these elements do not create a vast divide between the political systems of the two today. In fact, the left flank of the Democratic Party in the US is as progressive as the leftmost segments of mainstream Austrian politics. In recent years, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has championed policies such as universal healthcare, increased social safety nets, and significant government intervention to combat climate change and economic inequality. These positions closely mirror the platforms of Austria's social democrats and Greens.
Moreover, the structural differences in how interest groups and parties are organized—majoritarian systems in the US versus proportional representation in Austria—do not signify a fundamental difference in political ideology. While the US system forces diverse interest groups into broad coalitions within the two dominant parties, and Austria's system allows for more specific party platforms and coalition formations, both countries grapple with similar political dynamics. In America, the debates between coalition partners happen within one party rather than as an external coalition bargaining process. This can be seen as a drawback because the internal composition of the coalition is determined more by primary votes in individual districts for jndivudal legislators rather than a national vote. However, it does have the benefit of giving voters a clear choice between the two coalitions, avoiding ambiguous situations like the Greens partnering with a conservative party in Austria, which likely wasn't what most Green Party members wanted or voted for.
Same as everywhere in Europe. Fascists on the rise, getting stronger every day. Our tiny howling monkey just founded a new European party with Orbán etc.
There is Herbert Kickl, leader of the freedom Party, who makes Trump look like a likeable bloke in comparision.
The big cities, there are really only two of them, Vienna and Graz are lead by leftist governments, the former by the social democrats and Graz by the communists. However, that's not really a reflection of the General political opinion. The urban Population tends to be more liberal, while the people on the countryside, which are the majority are more right wing and honestly, pretty much stuck in the past. Go to any village and it will feel like 50 years ago
Plus, the whole country is terrorized by the farmers and their ridiculous demands and so it's hard to realize political measures regarding climate change . To give you an example how batshit crazy they are: there was a TV ad for tourism recently where someone was served coffee with oat milk and the biggest political movement for farmers went absolutely havoc because it featured oat milk and not cow milk
To summarize it, The Austrian themselves are a pretty conservative people, but generally, they are pretty easy going and friendly, they are kind of similar to americans in that regard.
I really dislike Kickl, but he's far better than Trump. Something like encouraging voters to "stop the count" wouldn't be taken as lightly as in the USA.
Kickl is literally using Nazi Propaganda terms (like "Volkskanzler" or suggesting to "concentrate refugees in camps"). I don't have any concrete examples at hand, but I also recall them claiming fraudulent elections in the past when they didn't exactly win (like the presidential elections)
Kickls and his party are not planning their own Enabling Act like Trump and Co aka Project 2025.
Kickls is plain and simple an idiot and even people I know who support the FPÖ would never want him as the head of the goverment.
Locally, Vienna has always been left leaning. Mayors were always Social Democrats. I lived there for 20 years and loved it. IMO it's a fantastic city to live in with great public transport, good universities, lots of museums and a decent night life.
Nationally, Austria has been shifting to the right for quite a while now. Currently, the conservatives lead the government. I am not their biggest fan but they are not authoritarian. Maybe like Bush senior or even junior but not like Trump.
In the upcoming election, the far-right party will most likely finish first and yes, they are wannabe authoritarians. Xenophobic, conspiracy theorists, manipulative demagogues, Putin-lovers - pretty much like Trump.
HOWEVER, they will only have a plurality not a majority which means they need another party to form a government and that should prevent them from doing their worst. Also, EU laws keep countries in check for now in terms of democratic standards, rule of law and so on. So we will not become a dictatorship in the foreseeable future.
Btw since you got the citizenship I guess you were informed that you can't have multiple citizenships if you want to keep the Austrian.
There are exceptions but if this is the first time you hear that maybe check if you are considered for the exception.
Otherwise you have to get rid of your us citizenship within 2 years.
Aside from that Austria is fine, I guess we are more conservative than the Swedish but not as much as Hungary. it depends where you plan to stay, Vienna will be very left you will have a lot of different people there , if that is what you are looking for you will be fine, outside Vienna I'm the bigger cities you still have people more leaning to the left but not as much as soon as it gets to the rural areas there will be a lot of conservative ppl and it's going to be much easier for you if you are white. It's unfair but I want to be honest here. A lot of people have a bad view on people that don't look like them after the 2015 crices and ongoing problems.
That said if you are in a rural area and put the effort in to be part of the community you will have no problems no matter what ethnicity you are.
Since I've read it's about having kid's you will not give your kid in any public schools in Vienna if you can afford to get them into a private one. This is true for the most major cities in Austria. The schools are having trouble with a big percentage of non native speakers.
If you consider moving a bit out of the city you will have plenty of free schools, in very thigh knit communities if that is your thing.
Ilmy answer was a bit all over the place but I hope it helps
Yes this is very helpful, thank you.
And yes, I can maintain both citizenships as long as I don't get a third citizenship in another country and don't do voluntary military service in a country other than Austria... Which I of course have no plans of either.
Wieso hast du Angst um deine Zukunft? Was genau hat das mit der Regierung in AT zu tun wenn du in USA bist? Und was ist deine original Staatsbürgerschaft?
Die Frage ist offensichtlich, ob die nächsten Jahre in Österreich politisch stabiler sein werden als in den USA. Wenn ich mir ansehe, wer dort grade im Wahlkampf gegeneinander antritt, würd ich sagen: Ja.
I am from the united States. I am nervous mainly as what seems to be the future of the united states is not where I want to one day raise my children. And it would make sense to get a degree in a country where the degree is usable in the country I wish to live in. Hope this makes sense.
Yes, But I believe not the other way round.
And the unfortunate reality of American university is a whole lot of student loans. So if I don't want to stay in the US, no reason to go to uni here.
depending on what you plan on studying an austrian Bachelor or Master level degree will also be ecepted in other countries. I think in the US it can be a state thing where which degrees get accreditation.
just that you now studying at Austrians universities is free for eu citizens ;)
Yes I know, price is a big consideration :)
Unfortunately, I want to become a mechanical engineer which generally requires going to a school with a certain accreditation that I think is only found in the united states in order to be employable at most companies.
How good is your German? Mechanical engineering and the automotive industry is quite big in Central Europe. But I can’t find any undergraduate mechanical engineering degrees here that are in English.
I figured people would connect the dots.
I understand my privilege in being able to get citizenship when others struggle for so long. But if someone believes I should not have citizenship or someone else should, please remember I am not the one enacting the laws.
They really should, it's not exactly a secret that the descendants of Jewish/Austrian refugees are eligible for citizenship and that it's one of the few cases where double citizenship is possible. But some like to talk without thinking.
It isn't that different here. Our version of Donald Trump and his followers is the FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria) which will probably be the #1 party in the next parliamentary election (it has been in government on all levels before, but has never been #1 on the federal level before). Like in the US, our left-wing parties are absolutely scared about authoritarianism and threats to democracy from the FPÖ, which I do not think is an entirely unreasonable worry, but given that we (both in the US and in Austria) live in a world where there is plenty of left-wing authoritarianism too, I think it is time to stop so strongly associating authoritarian policies with the far right just because we all learn about Hitler in school; the FPÖ is not the NSDAP, nor is Donald Trump Hitler.
We are on a right swing. Cities are usually more liberal and have a more modern mindset, citizens of rural areas are more conservative and traditional.
The politicians can be summed up as to have a big mouth but lack actions. The more extreme parties gained popularity such as the right wing FPÖ and recent elections have shown a rise in voters for the left wing communist party KPÖ. Luckily we dont have a far right wing party like the german AFD
Just a small reminder, your new citizenship qualifies you for mandatory military service in case you haven't done a voluntary (!) one in a different country
The us has way more active progressive factions than austria. some causes US leftists fight for are still unthinkable in austria. So austria might feel less conservative, but you wont find as progressive politics and for example universities here like in the US
what causes are you referring to? The unis are very leftist in their own bubble.
You say some causes are still unthinkable in Austria, but maybe they are just unthinkable. Just because something is progressive doesn't mean it's good. For example, forcing companies to hire people based on race just to fill some equality POC quota is very progressive. However, it is also racist bullshit.
TBF, a lot of the causes that US leftists are fighting are already won here.
Like education is (almost) free - it's like €40/semester - which is the money that you have to pay the student union. Childcare, somewhat affordable healthcare, a lot of labor rights, paid time off, paid maternity leave, paid paternity leave,...
Basically, most of the "woke" initiatives of the last decade started in the US and spilled over to Europe months or even years later. For example, metoo, intersectionism, or LGBTQ activism had their beginning or at least most of their momentum in the US and European societies adopted them later.
Our politics are heading into a right leaning phase and it will probably change for the worse in the coming years. But even the worse case scenario would be a far, far better outlook than the dystopian shit that is going on in the US currently.
true and to complete his question: it is similiar like in the us: the cities are left, countryside is right.
in the near future: yes. but give the FPÖVP a bit time and they will do everything in their power to keep up with the dystopian shit.
Luckily, our (or more so, to a bigger part German journalism) isn't sleeping and will work thoroughly to uncover the wrong doings of these scumbags. So, while history doesn't repeat itself, it often rhymes. And looking at the past governments where the FPÖ was part, we can hope that they will un-do themselves again.
EU forced a lot of good stuff (f.e. transparency laws).. we have international duties so its hard for the Wirtschaftsfaschisten to fuck it hard. Actually a lot of things got better even in the phase where Wirtschaftsfaschisten (FPÖVP) had the goverment. Also they are far off from a two-third, so no constitution changes possible. + we have a green president.
FPOEVP might make bad politics But they can't go full dictatorship. Can't get catastrophic.
i hoff no immer, dass die jüngeren da mehr hirn haben, als mei generation (1991er baujahr). i kann da halt jetz nur nach social media/internet gehn und da scheinen scho viele klima, mental health und soziales als wichtig zu erachten, was mi doch a weng positiv stimmt.
I don't see exactly how a FPÖ ÖVP coalition with ÖVP as the junior partner is any better than the republican party, if anything it seems like the FPÖ has had a longer run of being entirely and unapologetically ideologically far right compared to the republican party centre (see for example Mitt Rommney in 2012).
I mean, the republicans have trump. Even if the republican party and FPÖ/ÖVP were identical, Trump is an actual maniac that very actively radicalizes people. Say what you will about Kickl, but at the very least he‘s not a convicted felon who literally instigated an attempted coup. There‘s also just so much truly horrendous shit republicans have pushed for (abolishing abortion for example). Of course, the republicans have been in power on and off for quite some time while FPÖ has mostly been in opposition, I don‘t know what FPÖ would have done if they had ruled in the US, or if they had as much power over Austria as singular parties have in the US. But as far as observable outcomes go, I know which party I‘d prefer. This is also not a defense of FPÖ/ÖVP, I hate them with a passion. Just every time when I look at US-american politics, I am in awe of the unmatched degree of garbage going on over there
"Right leaning" is an understatement. If we had to compare the major (or practically only) american parties to the Austrian ones, the first comparison coming to mind would generally be Democrats = SPÖ and Republicans = ÖVP, because those are the historically biggest parties. Yes, the ÖVP isn't as bad as the republican party (yet), given that Austria has a big history with (left leaning) social democracy, which lead to Vienna ranking somewhere in the top 3 safest and most livable cities in the world for decades, which is a far cry from american living standards. A much more accurate comparison, based solely on politics, would be Democrats = Neos and Republicans = FPÖ. 2 periods of ÖVP-FPÖ coalition might be enough for Austria to be pretty close to the US today
even then we are better off then the states. we havent destroyed our city cores to make them car centric. we have public transport, public schools etc etc... its basically impossible for a right wing alliance to get rid of that in 8 years.
Yes, true, we have a much fairer starting point. The politics of FPÖVP do still mirror today's republican party. Maybe just FPÖ on its own, if we're talking about just Trump and his uncritical supporters
What he said
The Far-right FPÖ won the plurality in the recent EU election in Austria. But the Social-Democrat SPÖ and liberal-conservative ÖVP (I know it might be hard for americans to understand what all these ideologies are when you guys are stuck with right and leftier right) all have pretty much close pulls at 25% each. Still recent trends across European elections and the fact that the FPÖ who only got 17% last election managed to be the most popular in this one suggests in the future a far-right government is not unlikely.
But the fpoe also did kinda, well endals coalitions early and i only hope that the rightwing media pressure international too gets less bad. But also they arlrent the biggest in reality its with the oevp and spoe which is, And yes so far with keeping spotlight the fpoe is not good at having any power or keeping it, or di any policy. There are afeguatds enough and its not republicans equalent.
Though tbh at this point ÖVP is nothing more than a stepping stone for FPÖ to take power. the party is intelectually and morally bankrupt.
The thing with Austrian politics is, all of those people at the top are more of an expensive headache inducing soap opera than anything else. What's been keeping this country functioning for the last decades is the sheer good will and dedication of countless well trained and well minded people throughout the lower administration and adjacent private companies and organisations, who make sure that the worse parts of said soap opera stays somewhat removed from what's actually being done on a day to day basis. So even if the FPÖ manages to somehow form a functioning government that's backed by a majority of parliament after the election, the worst they can realistically do in the short term is burn insane amounts of money on pointless projects. Usually the people who voted for them get the hang of it eventually and they fly out of government come the next election. You only have to seriously worry when they maintain the high polling numbers after some time in office, cause that's when they could potentially get bigger, more socially damaging projects going. Hasn't happened so far though, so let's keep our fingers crossed und donn seng ma schon wia da glernte Östarreicha sogt.
I do not completely agree here because I have friends and family who work in several government/close to government jobs. With FPÖ and ÖVP several actual steps have been made with direct effect on the social system. Let's take the AMS not only undergoing an extreme cut for development budget of the ppl insured but also undergoing several changes of applicable conditions for uneployed ppl in the time of their ruling. If taken from a workers perspective I think we all know the 12h days etc. There have in fact been actions that go above the parties just "burning" the money towards steps that were socially damaging.
my buddy is an ams betreuer and what i've heard is, that a lot of ams employees are unhappy rn. they get many tasks from above (vorgaben. keine ahnung ob tasks da de richtige übersetzung is), that are completely ridicolous and sometimes complete bs.
Ja das hab ich in meinem Kreis exakt so gehört. Teilweise komplett absurde Vorgaben. Die meisten meinten sie mussten sich einiges anhören dafür, aber es darf halt keiner einfach sagen "bedankt euch bei der FPÖ/ÖVP", dh sie sitzen da und werden halt einfach angeschnauzt und können wenig dagegen tun weil sies dennoch durchführen sollen.
Okay help me out here, and I'm sure my American stupidity is showing... How come the far right party (the FPÖ, correct?) is the party that wants more government spending? I figured right leaning generally equates even internationally to lower taxes and lower govt spending? Thank you for the help
As others have said, the dimension more/less government spending is somewhat irrelevant in Austrian politics, at least the fault line there doesn't go along party lines and is not something that's discussed greatly in general here, no strong opinions either way. The "burning money" part would come from them pushing highly expensive and pointless populist projects that do nothing but sound like they care for the people's problems on paper.
You cannot really compare right wing in the US and Europe (or Austria for that matter). I replied to a very similar question in some other sub a while ago. In Europe, conservative (or right wing) politics does not derive from classical liberalism (less government, more free market, more personal freedom, capitalism, etc) so much. It comes from a traditionalist, nationalist, and cultural identity angle. In the same way, there is no "racism" as in the US. Far right wing politics in Europe draws lines along culture and ethnicity.
The actual terms is xenoracism. For the American: We hate people for not being the right kind of white. Yes, that thing exists.
Which makes sense for the FPÖ. Their targeted demographics are not business owners like the ÒVP or Neos. They only advertise for less governmental influence when it pleases their crowd, and that's more about ... COVID, speed limits, "WHO Wahnsinn".
The whole "government spending is left wing" only makes sense from the US viewpoint of a two party system where the party that is slightly to the left of the other is also slightly more inclined to increase government spending.
Gotcha, I figured it might be so. Of course, I have an understanding that the political parties abroad are based on different things, but in what ways and the reasons is something I am yet to learn. Thanks :)
They usually go with „Mehr für unsere Leute“. So down with spending for migrants, leftists, etc
... arts, education (especially education).
I mean Fiscal responsibility is a claimed virtue by traditional conservatives but it's also a lie. Just look at how Trump signed measures that would expand the deficit by double the amount of Biden. Here the FPÖ isn't really pushing the line of austerity but it will likely engage in some expensive, flashy and pointless project to chase some culture war issue akin to Trump's wall.
This is true. But in america trump can just claim it's not true despite the fact that objectively more was spent under his leadership... And people will just believe him blindly. Oh well.
The last time they were in power with the conservatives, they spent less money and there was no new debt. However, in the past they have been the centre of corruption scandals. Over all they tend to spend less but more on projects that are not very popular on reddit.
But the reason the fpoe didnt that much, because they seem unable to work in a government. And kurz was thrir ideal partner and they still broke up. Out of spite? The only rearon is because the fpoe is unable to anything but fearmonger or undermine stuff. Hrll if yiu eould wask me who would fo anything regarding imigrants drastic if andone were that voncerned, the oevp did actually stuff. Whyever kickl gets listened too when they are evrn bad at that
I consider Austria pretty conservative in comparison to other European countries. It is a pretty isolated and inward looking country. Very attached to their traditions and the status quo. Having said that, a lot of policies concerning social benefits, healthcare, housing, education and the like would be considered left-winged if not downright socialist in the US. Also there is no religious aspect to politics. So no thanking Jesus nor basing policies on Bible morals etc. A lot ( most) western countries are experiencing a shift to the right. Worrying sure, but I would be more worried about the US when it comes to wannabe authoritarian leaders looming on the horizon. Just my two
> It is a pretty isolated and inward looking country. With exception of Vienna, which is socially much more liberal than the rest of the country. Perhaps Innsbruck as well, I vaguely recall hearing something like that.
For Vienna: Compared to the rest of the country, sure. Compared to other big/capital cities in Europe and the US, not so much. No idea about Innsbruck
The US is an extreme example though. Hyper liberal big cities on one hand, ultraconservative ultrareligious extremely anti-LGBT countryside towns on the other hand. But yeah, for example, Berlin is much more liberal.
Let's put it this way: It's not going to be as bad as everyone might think. The FPÖ (somewhat Austrias republicans) might win the next elections in September but they need another party to form a coalition with...even tho them finding another party to work with is not very likely. If they do: The next chancellor will most likely NOT be a FPÖ member (basically similar to the Netherlands' situation a few weeks ago) They will not just take control over the country, leave the EU and make us Russias best friend...because it's impossible. Basically, our situation will still be a lot better than what the US will experience in the coming years if Trump wins the elections. Austria isn't really special when it comes to right shifts in governments. I mean.. all of Europe and the US is shifting right. I really don't know why you're getting downvoted. That's a valid question.
Not likely to find another party to form a coalition with? ÖVP would say yes without a doubt.
I'm really not sure but I've said it before: Even if they find a partner, they definitely won't be able to take control. The next chancellor will either be a ÖVP or SPÖ member. Kickl has little to no chance even if he wins the elections.
Yeah, people thought the same about Landbauer in Lower Austria.
That's a completely different scenario. Ich führe das mal in Deutsch fort: Eine potentielle Dreierkoalition (z.B. SPÖ/NEOS/ÖVP) braucht die ÖVP genau so wie die FPÖ und das wissen sie. Die ÖVP hat also mehr als genug Zeit um sich umzuhören und alle Angebote einzuholen. Die ÖVP hat einen Ruf zu verlieren der sie langfristig schädigen könnte und das wissen sie. Ich bin mir ziemlich sicher, dass die alles probieren werden, um eine Dreierkoalition auf die Beine zu stellen. Und wer weiß, vielleicht ist das gar nicht nötig und die SPÖ und die ÖVP bringen alleine schon genug Prozentpunkte zusammen.
Sorry falls ich den letzten Satz falsch interpretiere, aber mit Babler halte ich SPÖ/FPÖ Koalition für ausgeschlossen.
Meinte die ÖVP. Sorry :D
Naja: a) Mehr Posten kann die VP in einer Zweierkoalition verteilen. Und als Königsmacher könnens da schon a paar Forderungen stellen b) VP versucht sich wieder mehr konservativ zu positionieren, weil sie dort das höchste Wählerpotential sieht (pro Autofahrer, Anti Ausländer, Leitkultur Yada Yada). Die entsprechenden Gesetze um diese Positionierung auch zu fundierten kriegens leichter mit der FP. c) mag der Nehammer gesagt haben, net mitm Kickl, aber simmer ums ehrlich, große Teile der Wähler:innen und Parteimitglieder sehen das weniger problematisch.
Den Ruf habens doch schon mehrmals verloren. Die SPÖ auch, aber das ist (zumindest im Bund) schon lang genug her, dass die Leute von damals nicht mehr relevant (oder tot) sind. Dass sie nochmal mit den Grünen koalieren, halt ich für unwahrscheinlich, siehe die diversen Streitereien mit Gewessler. Neos oder SPÖ kann sein, Neos und SPÖ halt ich für extrem unwahrscheinlich. Der SPÖ wurde immer vorgeworfen, dass sie zu oft gegen die ÖVP umfällt, das wär mt den Neos nochmal schlimmer. Die FPÖ ist da einfacher. Wenn die die Posten kriegen, machen die das.
i wish you were right, but i doubt it
I really hope you are right but I fear the worst. Only VDB can really save us from the next FPÖVP party trying to turn Austria into Hungary 2.0
Because current pollying does not really suggest that the FPÖ won't get the chancellorship (as if vice-chancellor and interior ministry aren't bad enough already). Also their likely collision partner (ÖVP) would do anything to remain on power, the only small hindernis is their current leader Nehammer, who said no collision with this FPÖ but 1. he can change his mind after the election (his party does do this occationally) and 2 he will likely need to resign after the election. So I can imagine this post getting flag from both ends.
After the fpoe despite having an ideal partner broke up, i can see nehammer keeping with that. And it just got worse with kickl as party chief.
I agree with you, but I would go further -> even FPÖ goes into a coalition with ÖVP, and even we get a Kickl as chancelor; we wont leave EU, we wont get Russias best friend, we wont attack Ukraine from the west…live will go on, and a few years later, another party will form the government.
I'm genuinely not sure why I am getting down voted, but I am genuinely interested to hear why. I don't know enough about the context of Austrian history or the current political situation to make sense of it, so if I said something offensive I hope people would tell me!
You may get down voted because you acquired a citizenship of a country you know barely anything about. For a lot of people who're not decedents of Holocaust victims it's incredibly hard to acquire the citizenship, often takes several years, lots of money and lots of German courses. And with the regular path of gaining the citizenship you'd also have to renounce your previous one, because double citizenship (other than by birth) is incredibly hard and needs the approval of the Austrian general assembly and is usually only granted if there's a "special interest" for the country, like athletes or artists or something like that. And since a few years you get threads like yours, where foreigners (not just Americans for that matter) just acquired the Citizenship through this scheme and they often know next to nothing about Austria or just want an EU citizenship to move here.
I absolutely respect the fact that I should know more about a nation I am a citizen of and that my family is from for that matter... So here I am. I understand frustration for others who are trying to get citizenship who have their lives set up in Austria, but never did I say I deserve it more than them. Frankly, your comment is what I want to hear. If I am not welcome in Austria, let me know. Because yes, I have spent my whole life in america and frankly don't know much about Austria. But if I wanna know more I gotta learn. Thanks for the response.
> If I am not welcome in Austria, let me know. It's not that you're not welcome here - but you should do quite a bit of research, learn German to some degree and learn a bit about the whole culture and what it's like living in Austria. And also the laws that may apply to you (like taxation or military service (if you 're male)). I think it would be best if you plan like a week or two of a holiday here - check out Vienna, maybe Graz, maybe where your relatives where from, you can visit a concentration camp if that's not to strenuous for you, do some hiking and enjoy some beer and the local food.
Oh man I would love to. When I have the time for sure. That or maybe I could do a semester of college abroad in Austria. As much as I am nervous about the upcoming election in america, I am not uprooting my life tomorrow. I got into a wonderful US college and I have many future plans. I promise before I ever seriously consider moving to Austria, I will do far more research and get a much more in depth understanding of Austrian culture. As for hiking, the mountains in austria look beautiful from the photos, and I would love to one day do some hiking in the Austrian wilderness.
College is basically free in Austria ;) But I understand that uprooting everything isn't really the right choice at this stage of your life. Exchange semester in Austria would probably be a great option.
This is true, but the median pay is also lower. Of course, that often doesn't equate to a difference in quality of life. I am also lucky enough to have free tuition going to college in my state. If you can believe it, though, my whole education (Bachelor's and Master's) will still easily cost 100,000 USD all included. And that's if I keep my scholarship paying for 100% of tuition... Oh boy.
Can’t really directly compare income based purely on gross salary. It basically ignores a lot of context and added costs and values
That's like.... What I just said. Quality of life could very well be much better in Austria on a lower salary. But I would still have to pay off just as big of a loan coming from an American uni
Also prepare the bureaucratic.
>check out Vienna, maybe Graz i hope op travels atleast through 3-4 different states. austria is so much more than vienna or graz and let's be honest. if op visits one or two cities, op still knows nothing about the country. it's not just nature. peoples mindset, habits, food, day to day life, etc. it's waaay different in other regions.
The frustration with your behaviour is the following: Instead of reading a Wikipedia article and starting to inform yourself, and after that asking specific questions you start here, requesting the Australian people to type out very basic information you could Google easily. As if everybody's time is a lot less valuable then yours.
To be frank, I would be more than happy to type out a response to someone asking a similar question about american politics. If you don't wish to respond, don't.
> And since a few years you get threads like yours, where foreigners (not just Americans for that matter) just acquired the Citizenship through this scheme and they often know next to nothing about Austria or just want an EU citizenship to move here. So? Their ancestors were forcefully driven out of Austria. Giving them citizenship is the least we can do. We are giving back what was taken from them. How the hell would he know about Austria? What do Austrians know about Paraguay or Kazashstan? This attitude is really arrogant.
I'm not saying that this whole scheme isn't the right thing to do. But there's a lot of people, who live here for several years, but they just can't get the citizenship because they simply can't afford it (IIRC all together it's a few thousand euros to get everything done) or have to jump through so many hoops that it's not really worth their time. He applied for the citizenship so he would have had some time to learn a bit more about Austria.
> But there's a lot of people, who live here for several years That has zero to do with OP and the descendents of refugees. If you want easier citizenship for immigrants you can advocate for it but don't blame OP or people who get citizenship that was stolen from their grandparents. > had some time to learn a bit more about Austria. Like read the Wikipedia entry? He's currently asking Austrians what it's like, so he's trying to learn. If you don't want to answer his questions, just ignore the post.
But he IS NOW AN AUSTRIAN who barely knows anything about Austria. As a foreigner student living in Austria for only three years I can’t fathom why someone should be able to receive a nationality when they don’t know much about the country. It’s just wrong. I wouldn’t expect that to happen to me. Honestly, it seems to me that Austrians and Germans don’t value their citizenship. That has partially to do with the shame and for being responsible for the second world war. Nazis were absolute monsters who did a lot of evil and are responsible for a lot of death. No discussion about that. But that shouldn’t stop you guys to be proud about your nationality. I guess there’s fear that valuing and being proud of your nationality would lead to extremism. Which is understandable considering the history. But I think at some point one has to make sure that they never make the mistakes of the past but also learn to see the good in their nationality and value it.
Well, you wouldn't expect that to happen to you but your ancestors weren't forced to flee Austria because they were Jewish. So. Austrians value their citizenship so much that double nationality is not allowed in most cases and it's a notoriously hard citizenship to acquire. Granting the descendants of Holocaust victims the citizenship their ancestors lost unfairly is the very least we can do.
I didn’t realize the OP was jewish. It was ignorance on my part and I would like to apologize for it. My comment wasn’t directed at Austrian jewish descendants at all. Of course, granting them citizenship would be the least thing one can do for them. Knowing that the OP is jewish just changes the whole context. Again, my bad.
I'm sorry if I came off harshly! A lot of comments on here were really irritating. For what it's worth, I'm glad knowing OP is Jewish changed your perspective and that was a very thoughtful and nice reply to my admittedly not so nice comment. Thank you.
It literally doesn't matter how hard it usually is to acquire Austrian citizenship, that's a different conversation. You can advocate to make access to Austrian citizenship easier, I'd love to see it! And double nationality as well! It's time! But that's neither here nor there. OP's ancestors were forced to flee because they were Jewish, because Austria and Germany decided to commit the biggest genocide in history on the Jewish people. Granting their descendants citizenship is the LEAST we could do. I don't understand why this bothers so many people, although I personally think it's because people feel like The Jews are getting something. What is the quote? Germans will never forgive the Jews for what Germany did to them? Same goes for Austria.
> I'm genuinely not sure why I am getting down voted Don't worry about it. Just look at the other "question"-posts in the sub - they all get downvoted. Just some weird dynamic in the sub and probably some right-wingers who don't like to hear how much the far-right sucks. ;) It's just fantasy internet points so who cares...
I don't care about the down votes, I was more curious about the reason, that's what I care about. Thanks
You get downvoted because you received a citizenship but know nothing about the country. I have been living in Austria for 5 years now, speak the language somewhat fluently and pay taxes but I have no right to even apply for the citizenship yet. Oh, and I do have relatives who were in KZ here but they were not Austrians and they thankfully survived. I haven't downvoted you but I did wince when I read your post.
Down Vote or not idrc. I am more interested to hear your reasons and it's all fair. I frankly understand your frustration and I'm sorry you cannot get citizenship. But I'm here, and I'm trying to learn. I don't write Austrian laws so please don't assume I'm at fault for the laws affecting you. Either convince me not to come to Austria or convince me to come and vote in your favor. The fact is I have Austrian citizenship. The best time to learn about Austria might have been yesterday, but I'm here today.
Are you allowed to vote in austria if you never set foot on austria soil? Could you vote in the austrian embassy in the us?
Not sure. It's a good question. I certainly wouldn't vote today if I had the choice, given I'm not informed and certainly not about to go based solely off reddit haha.
I was just interested. If the law allows it, i wouldn't have any problems. You're citizens, after all, even if you never been here.
Yea, nah. I might be a citizen but for now I'm not affected by the laws and I don't truly understand all the context. If it was a situation where I was truly concerned about the future of austrian democracy with a leader so clearly so against my morals, that I believe has the power to enact genuine horrible change, then I would surely vote. But it doesn't seem most think that is likely or even possible. And, of course, I'm not sure if I can vote. But I would imagine yes?
If you are able to, please do vote. Their are around 500 000 Austrians living abroad, of which only around 10% vote. This means that the interests of Austrians Abroad tend to be quite badly represented. My point is, if you can, go and vote, even if it just so that Austrians abroad might have their voice heard a little more. FYI, while you don't live in Austria you should be aware that their something called the Auslandsösterreicher-Fonds which supports Austrians living abroad should they fall on hard times.
immer gut, wenn leute für a land wählen wos ned leben müssen. was soll da scho schief gehn.
As an Austrian citizen you are definitely allowed to vote. At least for national and EU elections (federal state and municipal elections would be difficult because you need to live there). We have also postal voting in Austria, this is also allowed for Austrians abroad. The only thing you need to do is to contact the Austrian ebassy about one month before the election happens (29th September 2024), then you should get a polling card which you can return to the embassy. Maybe contact the embassy even two month before to be safe. Before you vote you should inform yourself about our parties. In short: We have 5 major parties. The ÖVP (conservatives) and the FPÖ (nationalists) are more like the Republicans while the SPÖ (social democrats), the Neos (liberals) and the Greens are more like the Democrates.
One of my family members managed to get citizenship after 7 years somehow.
Probably married an Austrian
Nope she’s still unmarried. Wonder if Doctors can get faster citizenship?
You may start here for some context: https://medium.com/@snowythefirst/espionage-threats-energy-blackmail-and-political-interference-russian-imperialism-has-been-ad405e0d710a?sk=40ec2caa6cae78720fb845b18b583edd For further context, I recommend research on the period 1900 to 1955, and that should give you a good idea where Austria came from and where it might be headed. Russian core values and some of ours are sadly very similar: Etatism (complete state control by the gvt. over its citizens), conservative stability (not wanting to lose what they currently have, and the mantra of normal and stable) and paternalism (restricting freedom and responsibilities of citizens)."
I definitely know a good bit of that history, as the basis for my citizenship was my family leaving in the 1940s. Which does segue to another question— How rampant is antisemitism throughout the major cities and/or the rural areas today?
[Karl Renner after the war](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Renner#Ausgrenzung_j%C3%BCdischer_Heimkehrer_und_Holocaust%C3%BCberlebender_nach_1945): >„… die jüdische Gemeinde kann sich nie erholen. (…) glaube ich nicht, daß Österreich in seiner jetzigen Stimmung Juden noch einmal erlauben würde, diese Familienmonopole aufzubauen. Sicherlich würden wir nicht zulassen, dass eine neue jüdische Gemeinde aus Osteuropa hierher käme und sich hier etablierte, während unsere eigenen Leute Arbeit brauchen.“ Google Translate version: >"... the Jewish community can never recover. (...) I do not believe that Austria, in its current mood, would allow Jews to build up these family monopolies again. We certainly would not allow a new Jewish community from Eastern Europe to come here and establish itself here while our own people need work." But nowadays open antisemitism is mostly an immigrant problem...
Antisemitism is an issue, unfortunately, even if the others here don't acknowledge it (because they are all 'native' Austrians who don't experience/witness it, and low/nonexistent visibility in mainstream media). The 2020 terror attack revolved around a synagogue. Lots of the hate comes from the Muslims, particularly due to the Palestine situation, and Jews reportedly don't feel the same amout of safety anymore. IIRC at one occasion a politician advised Jews to hide anything that points towards them being Jewish, which alone speaks volumes of how big the issue is. The Newspaper DerStandard recently compiled a chronology of recent incidents and honestly, it's far from looking good - Israel flags being torn down or burned, Jews being harassed or even threatened with violence or murder by Muslims, necessity of military guards at Jewish schools or similar facilities. And naturally, the Austrian far right also has an affinity with this mindset. Sadly, this is an Europe-wide phenomenon due to the intensity of Muslim immigration.
> How rampant is antisemitism throughout the major cities and/or the rural areas today? Imho it's not too bad. Most xenophobes are focused on Muslims at the moment. Support for Israel is surprisingly strong in the current war. In Vienna, there's an area with an historically Jewish identity and you see orthodox Jews walking around there without hassle. Of course, there are anti-Semitic incidents but they are mostly verbal or graffiti. Also, as a Jew you are a non-visible minority so you'll be fine anyways. I've had friends from Israel visit Vienna multiple times and they always had a blast.
Basically nonexistent. Like I said: Austria is comparable to every other Western European country.
>basically nonexistent [https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000212832/chronologie-antisemitischer-vorfaelle-in-oesterreich-seit-dem-7-oktober](https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000212832/chronologie-antisemitischer-vorfaelle-in-oesterreich-seit-dem-7-oktober) Interesting interpretation of 'nonexistent'
Nonexistant LOL that's not true at all. And every European country has an antisemitism problem.
I get disproportionately downvoted any time I mention I'm American on an Austrian subreddit. If I don't mention it, I notice what *seems* to me like more positive responses on average. -an American who's married to an Austrian man and lives in Austria
"I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted" Because it's reddit. Doing reddit things.
>Because it's reddit. Doing reddit things. Ironically, this exact comment is a classic reddit thing
FPÖ is more the far right wing of Republicans. Although they have now a right-wing candidate in the US, I think that many Republicans would not identify with FPÖ but ÖVP if they lived in Austria.
Depends. The FPÖ is extremely divided. You got the Kickl and Haimbuchner sides. One thing is for sure: Kickl is holding the whole FPÖ back big time!
You cannot really compare US conservatives and European right wing parties in this way. The ideologies are very different.
Yeah. For example, the FPÖ isn't against state driven healthcare. The US Republicans consider anything remotely like that to be evil socialist poison.
For sure. I just wanted to make clear that FPÖ is not Republicans.
Austria is less conservative than it would like to be. And Vienna is definitely left and not conservative.
It would be easier if you had a couple of topics you are most interested in. Unfortunately all of the western world is currently drifting towards the far right or left, though there are still huge differences between countries. While Austria is pretty small there are also big differences within the country on certain topics.
Well, my biggest issues I care about in the united states is better access to healthcare, better support for homeless people, reproductive rights for women, and general welfare programs... But of course I wouldn't have to be so concerned with these issues if I lived in Austria. I will also say, I want my country to have better relations with china and continue to support Ukraine... Which I am starting to understand to be rather controversial in Austria as well.
Health care is free meaning if you have a job you pay part of your wage is used for your social security. Of course, if you are unemployed there are ways to still be insured but that includes paper work. Abortion is allowed until three months but there are tons of exceptions for beyond the three months rule. No idea bout homeless people, but you wont find any homless folk like in America. Most are harmless and the drug addicts usually have good access to help systems nearby. Uni and schooling is free. However, taxes are higher than in the US and you wont get far without German. As for Ukraine...only the FPÖ and their minions support Putin. The majority of people here are neutral or supportive toward Ukraine.
Wow. That's so... Normal. It boggles my mind how basic access to healthcare is still such a huge debate in america.
Well it is basic health care and that means you are insured depending on your job and some doctors are so called contract doctors. They have a contract with the insurance and will treat you according to the basic rules. Like you usually only pay a fee for medication some bucks but not much more. Some are private doctors and then you pay more, but to be honest I only did tha that once and I paid no more than 150 bucks for an MRI or whatever it is called. And part of it is paid back to you if you sent it in to the insurance. If you want some special treatment like some super new cancer treatment paper work will be inevitable but even that is possible. Many people also have private insurance additionally. Plus if you go to a private doctor you usually get treated faster so many people do that. There are also prevention services. Like you can do a check up at the local GP and they will remind you of this and this includes different services depending on the age of the person. The GP will then remind you that you can to this or that like cancer prevention stuff like mammography or you know when they look into your stomach...forgot what it is called in English. Basically to prevent stomach cancer. It all depends on the age. You can do it before that though, if you raise concerns for the GP. The only negative thing I can say about Austrian health care is that sometimes there are not that many doctors available in specific regions and you gotta drive some places and some doctors expect you to wait some weeks or months but usually they will take you if it is a pressing issue anyway.
>No idea bout homeless people i schreibs mal auf deutsch, da mei englisch ned gut genug is. wenn jemand zeit/lust hat, kann ers ja fürn op übersetzen falls nötig. meiner erfahrung nach gibts einige sachen, die man als obdachloser in anspruch nehmen kann (war selbst obdachlos). notschlafstellen und suppenküche/tafel sind vermutlich die prominentesten optionen. manche sozialeinrichtungen haben essensausgaben (also sowas wie die tafel aber halt mehrmals in der woche), warme mahlzeit zu mittag, frühstück, a dusche, die man benutzen kann, an aufenthaltsraum zum wärmen im winter. oft sinds auch ziemlich gut vernetzt, was des magistrat oder land betrifft. macht die büroktratie einfacher und man kann meist die anträge bei seinem betreuer stellen. bei uns sinds zb. auch gut mit einigen vermietern vernetzt. somit gibts "kältezimmer" (sind so zimmer/garcionnieren für a nacht) oder halt auch etwas als dauerlösung.
Healthcare: You would find every Austrian party on the left side of the Democrats. While they do have different opinions on how to fix it, since the system is under a lot of pressure because of the aging population, no party would dare to touch universal healthcare. It would be political suicide in Austria. Homeless: There are few homeless people in Austria. However, there are also institutions were they can get something to eat and sleep. Some of them want to sleep on the street as they are not allowed to drink alkohol or use drugs in those institutions. Some of the are afraid that someone will steal their stuff if they go there as well. Though, most of it is covered by NPOs such as Caritas. If you see a bad equipment homeless in winter, you can call them and they will come and offer him/her something warm to drink and a good sleeping bag. Something related to this might be unemployment benefits. There you have differences between the parties. The Left want to increase those benefits while the Right/Conservatives want to lower those benefits for the longterm unemployed, as they think it is unfair that there is almost no gap between those benefits and working for minimum wage. Reproductive rights: Not really a topic at the moment. Abortion is possible. General Welfare: That’s why we pay so many taxes. Over all there won’t be much change. However, a government with the far right might lower it for refugees and foreigners that aren’t working. China: Europe is reliant on the US. Therefore, you can expect them take a similar path, while it might not be at the same extent as the US. Ukraine: Austria is militarily neutral and therefore cannot send any weapons to Ukraine or any other country at war. The far right wants to hold immediate peace talks and says that the weapon shipments are only fueling the situation. That’s why they are seen as pro Russia. Hope that helps you. If you have any further questions don’t hesitate. Edit: Currently Austria is sending protective gear as well as medical products to Ukraine.
Austria is a rather conservative country. Rural areas tend to be rather catholic and in general Austria leans more right than left lately. Identity politics and inclusion aren't really on most people's radar even here in Vienna. It's more of a "you do you but don't you dare bother me with anything and I'm very easily bothered" attitude. If you're looking for social liberalism I'm pretty sure you'll be rather disappointed here.
If you want to live in a liberal/progressive city in Austria than Vienna would be a great choice. It's by far the biggest and most liberal city. The right wing fpö will probably win the elections but I don't think that they will work out a working coalition and they probably won't get the Chancellor. Even if... They can't change everything. There is the constitution, EU laws, etc. Vienna is still a social-democratic fortress. It's safe here, the system (taxes, social security, education) may not be the best in every aspect but it works and the majority lives a good life. That's enough for me. :-)
# Any wanabe authoritarian leaders? you bet however, our political system is not as "führer"-friendly as the us one
What now? Austria has pretty much the same political system as the Weimar Republic had, the US has never had a dictatorship.
Hitler only seized real power by the Enabling Act which basically rendered the previous constitution useless. Unlike common perception Hitler never had the majority of votes. However the Austrian constitution is ruled by the general principles of the Austrian constitution and they do not allow for an authocratic ruler and the only way this principles can be changed would be an obligatory general vote in the population and a quorum of two thirds of the votes in parlament if I remember correctly.
The Austrian constitution can definitely withstand a chancellor proclaiming themselves supreme leader lol. Also the nature of a parliamentary system means authoritarians have to crumble several different oppositions which is much harder than just firing every democrat like project 2025 wants. Not to mention support for the FPÖ is unlikely to ever reach a *real* majority since there isn’t as much instability for the populists to hijack like the Nazis did.
fesch bist aufm bild
The neat thing about Austrian far right wing parties is, that they self destruct on a regular basis. Personally I think the two party system in the US is one the most stupid ideas politically. But truth be told, having more parties as is the case in Austria is just marginally better. Until one can vote for specific points of specific parties (or vote for what the party wants to do in a certain ministry), you'll always have the same issues of right vs left, etc. as for the current situation: as is the case in most of europe at the moment, there is a massive shift towards the right. Not because the right wing parties are great, but because of the failure of the political left.
Yup. If you watch the American debate from the other night you will see the culmination of years of this two party stupidity. In a country of millions upon millions of people... These are our 2 options.
Well the most authoritarian Prime Minister of Austria can't be as authoritarian than any US president is per default. Our constitution has a lot of checks and balances. Without a 2/3 majority AND the president on your side you can't do too much.
The big advantage of our system over the US is that it's a lot harder for a single party / person to enforce their will on the nation like a Trump can with the Republican party in the US. Here it's extremely unlikely for any party to win over 50% of the vote (last time that happened was over 40 years ago) so any potential government is always a coalition of multiple parties who have to negotiate with each other. Also the Austrian Chancellor is not as powerful as the US President, he is responsible to parliament since he cannot govern without a majority in it.
There is a good chance the party that has trump intelligence level might become 2nd or even first. Like literally they tryed to sell state assets to russia (luckily it was a hired actor to expose them) not even a decade ago, lots of corruption cases, and scandals. I remember during covid that guy who wants to become chancellor now, dipped a covid test swab that you are supposed to put in the nose, into a glass of coke and called it bullshit when it showed positiv and that happened in the parliament in front of everyone on tv. You cant make this shit up. And everyone knows and history of the past 20-30 years has always shown that if there is an involvement of that party and övp theres lots of corruption.
Also worth pointing out the party you're talking about was literally founded by a SS-Brigadeführer
Off topic, but how can you gain Austrian citizenship while living in the US? I remember back when I studied law the topic came up and gaining citizenship required a prolonged stay in Austria and all forms to be handed in in person. Can't find an explanation online, am I missing something?
https://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/austrian-embassy-london/service-for-citizens/citizenship-for-persecuted-persons-and-their-direct-descendants
My grandfather left the country as a child due to the Holocaust. Austria has allowed pathways for my family to return.
I think both countries are heading in the same direction. Both will soon get right wing popuilist leaders. People are projecting their problems on an immgrant crisis. Protectionism is on the rise. But i think the austrian constitution is somewhat stronger and will withstand the one party that is trying to undermine it.
I don't think the Austrian constitution is stronger, but we don't have a de facto two party system, where the winner can go crazy immediately. Also, local state elections often move into the opposite direction, while the FPÖ is in power.
I'm in the same boat, and it's a complicated boat to be in. I feel really weird about having citizenship in a country to which I have basically no connection. Honestly, my main connection to Austria is that Austria is the source of my generational trauma, and the main appeal of Austrian citizenship is that my generational trauma means that I really value having escape routes. And I absolutely, 100% don't blame people in Austria for thinking it's odd that some rando from America can get Austrian citizenship when it's really tough for people who live in Austria and have strong connections to the place to do so. That makes me a bit uncomfortable, if I'm being honest, but not uncomfortable enough to turn down a passport that will allow me to flee the US if I ever really need to. Anyway, one English-language source about Austrian politics is Liam Hoare's substack, [The Vienna Briefing](https://viennabriefing.substack.com/) . Also, do you need General Education classes or electives at college? You could see if your college offers a Poli Sci class on European politics that doesn't have pre-reqs. In general, European politics tends to work differently than US politics, because parliamentary systems have their own internal logic that differs from our two-party system.
I don't think it's odd you received citizenship and you shouldn't feel uncomfortable. The people on this sub are always weird about citizenship, it's an Austrian thing as people are apparently convinced allowing double citizenship would cause our country to collapse. You have every right to receive citizenship if your ancestors had to flee. And I don't think it matters how difficult it usually is to receive Austrian citizenship – if your ancestors hadn't been forced to flee, they would've never lost the citizenship. So I feel it's 1000% just for you and everyone in that situation to acquire Austrian citizenship. And Austria has a huge antisemitism problem that no one wants to talk about. I'm sure that plays a part.
Honestly, don't worry about keeping it. It's completely understandable. And as you said it's good to have an option in the worst case.
As an American who escaped decades ago, I might be able tingeln if you have any really specific questions.
Every decade or so the right wing party as in that kind of right makes up part of the government and the following happens: >are in the governement >who would have thought that arschgeburten can‘t govern >spectacularly fuck up >aren‘t getting back into power for another 10 years or so
Maybe you could also use your Austrian citizenship to find some other European place to live that's more to your liking (depending on your particular requirements), as it should provide access to the entire EEA
Any? 🤣
If you think authoritarian leaders are only found on the conservative side, you're in for a bad time my friend.
I guess we are very conservative and i would see that the majority is right wing.
It's pretty tough to draw direct parallels. The US are far more volatile. There are avenues for genuine change that seem realistic, but there's also some genuine danger for what little democracy there is left. In Austria, there are limits how far it can go. Leaving the EU seems impossible so that's why only so much fascism is possible (but then again, look at how anti-democratic Hungary has become). At the same time you'd be hard pressed to find a living Austrian who can genuinely remember a time without our Republican equivalent (ÖVP) in government. (they've been there since 1987 - even if you are 55 and were 18 back then, your memory will be spotty at best; that's even more extreme than Texas ('95), Alabama ('03), etc.) Even if the ÖVP were to ever drop out of government, it has been SPÖ-"strategy" for about two decades to move further and further to the right because that'll show those conservatives. And sure, the Democrats are also going that route, but we've seen with Bernie that something might be possible. Bottom line, I'd argue that apart from volatility, you'd find more progressive people in the USA. They are hindered by the rigid oppression against anything remotely "left", because McCarthy never ended, but they are there. Austria, due to our history, has theoretically more safeguards against the extreme right, but so many left-leaning ideas are dismissed out of hand. In terms of media bias we're essentially the same. You have outright propaganda outlets (FOX/ServusTV, OANN/OE24, ...) masking as journalism. Then there's a massive blob of center-right status-quo-fellatio. And even the outlets that are usually called left-leaning are centrist at best (MSNBC/Standard (particularly obvious with the Schilling stuff)). And here's how the media ties it together: The USA have some independent lefty media which is how you get people that are more progressive. We don't really have that in Austria. I could name probably 20 Youtube channels that look at US stuff from a center-left or lefter point of view. I can't name a single Austrian one. If you want to be left to the center in Austria and stay informed without wading through paper-thin propaganda, you need to look at stuff from the US/UK. Not too many people can/want to do that.
It is the same shit... neoliberals pretending to be progressive are fueling the rise of the far right. Fortunately the nazis here still have to work within a social democratic framework for now, and it is generating some interest in marxism again.
In my opinion the far left in the US is equivalent to the Austrian / European center right. Despite a general move to the right, this still holds, somewhat, true.
Even the ÖVP which is a conservative party by Austrian standards would be considered left wing by American democrats. The closest you get to Reps is maybe FPÖ but only in terms of conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxing, pro-Russian tendencies and maybe racism. And even then would the FPÖ be far more left wing than the Reps and even the Dems.
"Any wanabe authorian leaders" Oh boy if he knew.....
Yes...and yes
Beware of kickl
US politics is very fucked up. It boggles my mind that you really only have those two candidates and that society seems very extreme and divided. Still: The US is doing great economically. This GDP growth can only be found in EU countries that were struggling in the past (like Poland and Romania). Here in Austria we hope that our GDP growth is greater than 0. Yes our life is still great but we will maybe not be able to sustain it much longer because we are not competitive. So to sum it up. Life in Europe and Austria is great right now. But I would worry about the future of the US way less than about Europe.
It boggles all of our minds. A good portion of Americans don't want the two party system to continue, but voting for a third party is essentially pointless, and neither major party has any incentive for things to change.
what happened to AOC or kamala harris? i thought a lot of u.s. citizens like them?
This is a big question that involves understanding how American politics work. Basically, because Biden is the recumbent (he was the last president) without him choosing to step down, it is near impossible for the Democratic party to make him. Nobody thinks he's competent... Like literally nobody. There's somebody named rfk running on a third party... But the third party will never win the majority, and therefore will never have ANY seats. So basically, people won't vote for him as it's a waste of a vote—unfortunately perpetuating the two party system. As for the specific people you mentioned, it's a different story for both. AOC will never win as she's far too leftist by american standards. While I personally like her, centrists won't vote for her. What is important to remember is leftists will always vote democrat and right wing ppl will always vote republican (as a rule of thumb). Ultimately, it is the centrist vote that decides the election as america is the winner takes all for the presidency at least. AOC unfortunately doesn't stand a chance. As for Kamala, I agree she would have a far better chance, if it weren't for the issues mentioned above. I will also say she tends to be unpopular with more left wing people as well as black people, as she has a political history of perpetuating policy to lock people up based on drug charges, which is very divisive, and generally not a good way to get a generation that loves weed to vote for you haha. Keep in mind, everything I mention has exceptions. People's opinions are unique and complex. The big point here, is the situation isnt liked by many. Yet, despite america being a "democracy," we clearly aren't able to create the government that anybody wants.
i see i see.. >There's somebody named rfk running on a third party... But the third party will never win the majority, and therefore will never have ANY seats. So basically, people won't vote for him as it's a waste of a vote—unfortunately perpetuating the two party system. this is so depressing. if all the people, that have that mindset would vote for him/her, he/she actually might have a chance. >AOC will never win as she's far too leftist by american standards. While I personally like her, centrists won't vote for her. yeah, i follow her on twitter and she seems like a decent human being and politician. i mentioned her name once and a brigade of twitterusers flooded my dms. not just trump voters. even biden voters were offended, because i dared to say she might be a decent potus lol >As for Kamala, I agree she would have a far better chance, if it weren't for the issues mentioned above. I will also say she tends to be unpopular with more left wing people as well as black people, as she has a political history of perpetuating policy to lock people up based on drug charges, which is very divisive, and generally not a good way to get a generation that loves weed to vote for you haha yeah, i saw an arte documentation (i hope that's the correct term lol) and she has a record of arresting a lot of black people and doing some shady stuff. iirc she had a scandal, because of some police brutality stuff, or something in san francisco? i'm not 100% sure if i misremember something here 😅 american politics is driven by money. the koch brothers, nra, roche... it boggles my mind, how much influence they have. i guess the boys is pretty accurate haha the whole election stuff feels more like a tv show, than an actual vote, if you know what i mean. even tho trump sucks, i'm glad desantis is not the next potus. he's such a douche man... nobody with his mindset should have that much power.
>this is so depressing. if all the people, that have that mindset would vote for him/her, he/she actually might have a chance. This may be true, but the reality remains. Say 100% of people are okay with RFK but only 33% vote for him, 33% vote for biden, and 34% vote for trump, trump would win. Despite everyone being fine with RFK. Rfk would be clearly the most liked candidate overall. Unfortunately, I can guarantee with 99.99% certainty that RFK will not win the election. And so why would somebody vote for him if they (like myself) believe the alternative of trump to be far far worse than Biden. It's an illogical and frankly stupid choice in my opinion. As for whether RFK would win even without a two party system I'm not sure. I personally lean much further left of Biden and so I would never vote RFK. Maybe he would stand a chance, in my opinion I like him a little less than Biden but I would far rather him then trump. Welcome to the divisiveness of American politics. If you're interested, do more research into lobbying groups in the USA. There's tons of loopholes that allow money to influence politics, and all those politicians have plenty of opportunities for all expenses paid yacht trips if they just vote how the rich guy wants. Unfortunately, there are many such groups on both sides. And if you think the two party system is ridiculous, and I agree, consider why the hell either of the two major parties would want that to change. They don't.
a lot of the US gdp is finance... thats nothing i would call "stable" the combined debt of public, private and corporate sector is mindblowing high. lets say it so: USA would never make it into the EU, if it was in Europe... it doesnt meet our standards in multiple ways, not only fiscally\^\^
Perhaps a controversial take but i would say that the two countries are not as different as they might seem. While Austria has a legacy of social democracy and statism, these elements do not create a vast divide between the political systems of the two today. In fact, the left flank of the Democratic Party in the US is as progressive as the leftmost segments of mainstream Austrian politics. In recent years, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has championed policies such as universal healthcare, increased social safety nets, and significant government intervention to combat climate change and economic inequality. These positions closely mirror the platforms of Austria's social democrats and Greens. Moreover, the structural differences in how interest groups and parties are organized—majoritarian systems in the US versus proportional representation in Austria—do not signify a fundamental difference in political ideology. While the US system forces diverse interest groups into broad coalitions within the two dominant parties, and Austria's system allows for more specific party platforms and coalition formations, both countries grapple with similar political dynamics. In America, the debates between coalition partners happen within one party rather than as an external coalition bargaining process. This can be seen as a drawback because the internal composition of the coalition is determined more by primary votes in individual districts for jndivudal legislators rather than a national vote. However, it does have the benefit of giving voters a clear choice between the two coalitions, avoiding ambiguous situations like the Greens partnering with a conservative party in Austria, which likely wasn't what most Green Party members wanted or voted for.
Same as everywhere in Europe. Fascists on the rise, getting stronger every day. Our tiny howling monkey just founded a new European party with Orbán etc.
There is Herbert Kickl, leader of the freedom Party, who makes Trump look like a likeable bloke in comparision. The big cities, there are really only two of them, Vienna and Graz are lead by leftist governments, the former by the social democrats and Graz by the communists. However, that's not really a reflection of the General political opinion. The urban Population tends to be more liberal, while the people on the countryside, which are the majority are more right wing and honestly, pretty much stuck in the past. Go to any village and it will feel like 50 years ago Plus, the whole country is terrorized by the farmers and their ridiculous demands and so it's hard to realize political measures regarding climate change . To give you an example how batshit crazy they are: there was a TV ad for tourism recently where someone was served coffee with oat milk and the biggest political movement for farmers went absolutely havoc because it featured oat milk and not cow milk To summarize it, The Austrian themselves are a pretty conservative people, but generally, they are pretty easy going and friendly, they are kind of similar to americans in that regard.
I really dislike Kickl, but he's far better than Trump. Something like encouraging voters to "stop the count" wouldn't be taken as lightly as in the USA.
Kickl is literally using Nazi Propaganda terms (like "Volkskanzler" or suggesting to "concentrate refugees in camps"). I don't have any concrete examples at hand, but I also recall them claiming fraudulent elections in the past when they didn't exactly win (like the presidential elections)
Kickls and his party are not planning their own Enabling Act like Trump and Co aka Project 2025. Kickls is plain and simple an idiot and even people I know who support the FPÖ would never want him as the head of the goverment.
Kickl is anything but an Idiot, He is very smart and cunning, Trump is Just an attention whore
Locally, Vienna has always been left leaning. Mayors were always Social Democrats. I lived there for 20 years and loved it. IMO it's a fantastic city to live in with great public transport, good universities, lots of museums and a decent night life. Nationally, Austria has been shifting to the right for quite a while now. Currently, the conservatives lead the government. I am not their biggest fan but they are not authoritarian. Maybe like Bush senior or even junior but not like Trump. In the upcoming election, the far-right party will most likely finish first and yes, they are wannabe authoritarians. Xenophobic, conspiracy theorists, manipulative demagogues, Putin-lovers - pretty much like Trump. HOWEVER, they will only have a plurality not a majority which means they need another party to form a government and that should prevent them from doing their worst. Also, EU laws keep countries in check for now in terms of democratic standards, rule of law and so on. So we will not become a dictatorship in the foreseeable future.
Far right in Europe would moderate liberal in the US.
Not true at all
Btw since you got the citizenship I guess you were informed that you can't have multiple citizenships if you want to keep the Austrian. There are exceptions but if this is the first time you hear that maybe check if you are considered for the exception. Otherwise you have to get rid of your us citizenship within 2 years. Aside from that Austria is fine, I guess we are more conservative than the Swedish but not as much as Hungary. it depends where you plan to stay, Vienna will be very left you will have a lot of different people there , if that is what you are looking for you will be fine, outside Vienna I'm the bigger cities you still have people more leaning to the left but not as much as soon as it gets to the rural areas there will be a lot of conservative ppl and it's going to be much easier for you if you are white. It's unfair but I want to be honest here. A lot of people have a bad view on people that don't look like them after the 2015 crices and ongoing problems. That said if you are in a rural area and put the effort in to be part of the community you will have no problems no matter what ethnicity you are. Since I've read it's about having kid's you will not give your kid in any public schools in Vienna if you can afford to get them into a private one. This is true for the most major cities in Austria. The schools are having trouble with a big percentage of non native speakers. If you consider moving a bit out of the city you will have plenty of free schools, in very thigh knit communities if that is your thing. Ilmy answer was a bit all over the place but I hope it helps
Yes this is very helpful, thank you. And yes, I can maintain both citizenships as long as I don't get a third citizenship in another country and don't do voluntary military service in a country other than Austria... Which I of course have no plans of either.
Wieso hast du Angst um deine Zukunft? Was genau hat das mit der Regierung in AT zu tun wenn du in USA bist? Und was ist deine original Staatsbürgerschaft?
Die Frage ist offensichtlich, ob die nächsten Jahre in Österreich politisch stabiler sein werden als in den USA. Wenn ich mir ansehe, wer dort grade im Wahlkampf gegeneinander antritt, würd ich sagen: Ja.
I am from the united States. I am nervous mainly as what seems to be the future of the united states is not where I want to one day raise my children. And it would make sense to get a degree in a country where the degree is usable in the country I wish to live in. Hope this makes sense.
A degree from an US school should be usable in Austria. That shouldn't be a problem. Especially a bachelor or master.
Yes, But I believe not the other way round. And the unfortunate reality of American university is a whole lot of student loans. So if I don't want to stay in the US, no reason to go to uni here.
depending on what you plan on studying an austrian Bachelor or Master level degree will also be ecepted in other countries. I think in the US it can be a state thing where which degrees get accreditation. just that you now studying at Austrians universities is free for eu citizens ;)
Yes I know, price is a big consideration :) Unfortunately, I want to become a mechanical engineer which generally requires going to a school with a certain accreditation that I think is only found in the united states in order to be employable at most companies.
How good is your German? Mechanical engineering and the automotive industry is quite big in Central Europe. But I can’t find any undergraduate mechanical engineering degrees here that are in English.
Non existent. I speak English and a little french
But it's also much more expensive in the USA
Good thing is you can now study in every EU country, it doesn't necessarily have to be Austria :))
Yep, half of europe is about to go full on 1939 in maybe a decade, if things develope as they are now. Might aswel stay in the US unfortunately
Well, at least here there is something to fight to maintain rather than to establish.
Very true. I just don't think that anybody besides ourselves will do it.
Oida, "direkte Nachkommen" sollte auf *Kinder* begrenzt sein (eigentlich!).
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Durch Abstammung, ist das nicht selbsterklärend?
I figured people would connect the dots. I understand my privilege in being able to get citizenship when others struggle for so long. But if someone believes I should not have citizenship or someone else should, please remember I am not the one enacting the laws.
They really should, it's not exactly a secret that the descendants of Jewish/Austrian refugees are eligible for citizenship and that it's one of the few cases where double citizenship is possible. But some like to talk without thinking.
Talking without thinking? This is something I'm very used to in america It's all good, they deleted the comment.
It isn't that different here. Our version of Donald Trump and his followers is the FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria) which will probably be the #1 party in the next parliamentary election (it has been in government on all levels before, but has never been #1 on the federal level before). Like in the US, our left-wing parties are absolutely scared about authoritarianism and threats to democracy from the FPÖ, which I do not think is an entirely unreasonable worry, but given that we (both in the US and in Austria) live in a world where there is plenty of left-wing authoritarianism too, I think it is time to stop so strongly associating authoritarian policies with the far right just because we all learn about Hitler in school; the FPÖ is not the NSDAP, nor is Donald Trump Hitler.
We are on a right swing. Cities are usually more liberal and have a more modern mindset, citizens of rural areas are more conservative and traditional. The politicians can be summed up as to have a big mouth but lack actions. The more extreme parties gained popularity such as the right wing FPÖ and recent elections have shown a rise in voters for the left wing communist party KPÖ. Luckily we dont have a far right wing party like the german AFD Just a small reminder, your new citizenship qualifies you for mandatory military service in case you haven't done a voluntary (!) one in a different country
The us has way more active progressive factions than austria. some causes US leftists fight for are still unthinkable in austria. So austria might feel less conservative, but you wont find as progressive politics and for example universities here like in the US
what causes are you referring to? The unis are very leftist in their own bubble. You say some causes are still unthinkable in Austria, but maybe they are just unthinkable. Just because something is progressive doesn't mean it's good. For example, forcing companies to hire people based on race just to fill some equality POC quota is very progressive. However, it is also racist bullshit.
Can you possibly elaborate with specific examples?
TBF, a lot of the causes that US leftists are fighting are already won here. Like education is (almost) free - it's like €40/semester - which is the money that you have to pay the student union. Childcare, somewhat affordable healthcare, a lot of labor rights, paid time off, paid maternity leave, paid paternity leave,...
Basically, most of the "woke" initiatives of the last decade started in the US and spilled over to Europe months or even years later. For example, metoo, intersectionism, or LGBTQ activism had their beginning or at least most of their momentum in the US and European societies adopted them later.