Filipinos in Austria uneasy with electoral gain of right-wing parties
Filipinos and other foreigners and immigrants living and working in Austria said that they are quite uneasy after two parties which campaigned on an anti-immigrant and anti-European Union ticket showed strong results in recent national assembly elections.
“I never expected that the two far-right parties could gain so much support. I am 16 years old, which means, I was one of the first-time voters and I am deeply worried about the future of Austria. Among those who are younger than 30 years the FPÖ (Freedom Party) has achieved the most votes - a shocking result!” said Emmanuel Duran, an Austro-Pinoy first time voter.
The Austrian Freedom Party of Heinz-Christian Strache and the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) increased its votes after voters went to the polls in the country’s nine states last Sunday.
The Social Democratic Party, one of the biggest political party in the country was able to get 29.7 percent of the vote -- 5.6 percent down from the 2006 election. Meanwhile, the People’s Party of Austria (ÖVP) did even worse. That party's top candidate, the less charismatic Wilhelm Molterer, had to swallow this election's bitterest pill. He only brought in 25.6 percent of the vote, despite the fact that he was so certain of victory when he called for new elections last July 2008.
FPÖ now third strongest
Heinz-Christian Strache, the 39-year-old head of the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) commented that the result of the election has been a "historic achievement.”
Strache’s party gained a respectable 18 percent, having now become the third strongest party in Austria. Strache’s former mentor, Jörg Haider and his right-wing BZÖ party were able to pull in 11 percent of the vote -- or almost three times as much as they did in the last elections.
“Slogans like "Austria for Austrians" and "Our land for our children" have been tolerated by the government during the electoral campaign, showing the deep xenophobic state of the Austrian society,” said Lorito Sobrepena, a Filipino hospital worker.
“Pero kung titingnan natin sa lahat ng aspeto ng pamumuhay dito sa Austria, life cannot exist without foreigners, from the cleaning services to the great orchestras. The results of the election here are not only a slash in the face of the two big parties. It is an insult for all democratic, peaceful and progressive forces in Austria,” said Sobrepena.
‘Future to be multicultural’
Meanwhile, an Austrian teacher told ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau that she is convinced that the “future of Austria will be a multicultural one.”
“If you observe, schools are filled with Austrian children whose parents are not Austrian born. I just wonder how voters of right wing FPÖ and BZÖ imagine their country: no-one to work in their factories, no-one to preach in their churches, no tourists, no musicians, no artists, no EU, only 'pure bloods', poor and old inhabitants of an empty country,” the teacher said.
A leader of the biggest political party, the Social Democrats, Werner Faymann, however confirmed after the polls that he has no interest to make a coalition with one of the two election winners after the elections. Hector Pascua, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau, Austria. abs-cbnNEWS.com
“I never expected that the two far-right parties could gain so much support. I am 16 years old, which means, I was one of the first-time voters and I am deeply worried about the future of Austria. Among those who are younger than 30 years the FPÖ (Freedom Party) has achieved the most votes - a shocking result!” said Emmanuel Duran, an Austro-Pinoy first time voter.
The Austrian Freedom Party of Heinz-Christian Strache and the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) increased its votes after voters went to the polls in the country’s nine states last Sunday.
The Social Democratic Party, one of the biggest political party in the country was able to get 29.7 percent of the vote -- 5.6 percent down from the 2006 election. Meanwhile, the People’s Party of Austria (ÖVP) did even worse. That party's top candidate, the less charismatic Wilhelm Molterer, had to swallow this election's bitterest pill. He only brought in 25.6 percent of the vote, despite the fact that he was so certain of victory when he called for new elections last July 2008.
FPÖ now third strongest
Heinz-Christian Strache, the 39-year-old head of the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) commented that the result of the election has been a "historic achievement.”
Strache’s party gained a respectable 18 percent, having now become the third strongest party in Austria. Strache’s former mentor, Jörg Haider and his right-wing BZÖ party were able to pull in 11 percent of the vote -- or almost three times as much as they did in the last elections.
“Slogans like "Austria for Austrians" and "Our land for our children" have been tolerated by the government during the electoral campaign, showing the deep xenophobic state of the Austrian society,” said Lorito Sobrepena, a Filipino hospital worker.
“Pero kung titingnan natin sa lahat ng aspeto ng pamumuhay dito sa Austria, life cannot exist without foreigners, from the cleaning services to the great orchestras. The results of the election here are not only a slash in the face of the two big parties. It is an insult for all democratic, peaceful and progressive forces in Austria,” said Sobrepena.
‘Future to be multicultural’
Meanwhile, an Austrian teacher told ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau that she is convinced that the “future of Austria will be a multicultural one.”
“If you observe, schools are filled with Austrian children whose parents are not Austrian born. I just wonder how voters of right wing FPÖ and BZÖ imagine their country: no-one to work in their factories, no-one to preach in their churches, no tourists, no musicians, no artists, no EU, only 'pure bloods', poor and old inhabitants of an empty country,” the teacher said.
A leader of the biggest political party, the Social Democrats, Werner Faymann, however confirmed after the polls that he has no interest to make a coalition with one of the two election winners after the elections. Hector Pascua, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau, Austria. abs-cbnNEWS.com
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