On finger pointing in Vienna – Walter Mayr in Der Spiegel:

‘Kickl is a "well-oiled campaign and strategy machine,” says Strache approvingly, a politician with an unerring sense for what issues are on the top of voters’ minds. It was Strache himself, he claims, who took Kickl, that brash orator from Carinthia, under his wing more than two decades ago. He now believes Kickl has the stuff it takes to lead the Austrian government. "The other parties have gifted him the penalty shot. All he has to do is kick it into the goal.”’

(…)

‘The reference is to Austria’s mainstream parties: the ÖVP, the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and the economically liberal NEOS. After months of unsuccessful negotiations, the three parties announced on January 3 that there was insufficient common ground for building a coalition. Similar to Germany’s recently collapsed government, the trio of parties was unable to agree on how to shrink the county’s multi-billion-euro budgetary gap. Since then, finger pointing has become the new favorite pastime in political Vienna.’

(…)

‘According to the most recent polls, the FPÖ enjoys between 35 and 37 percent support. That equates to an additional 8 percentage points over the vote in September. Both the ÖVP and the SPÖ are wallowing in the neighborhood of 20 percent. The FPÖ, in other words, has less to fear from new elections than most of the other parties.’

(…)

‘A rendezvous with reality will likely make it clear to Kickl that he will find it challenging to fulfill even a fraction of his campaign promises. The FPÖ platform, called "Fortress Austria, Fortress of Freedom,” speaks of wide-ranging tax cuts and increased tax breaks for commuters. Paycheck withholdings are to be reduced significantly. One possibility for cutting spending would be the country’s multi-billion-euro involvement in the European air defense system Sky Shield. But it is doubtful whether the ÖVP would be willing to sacrifice this prestigious project.’

(…)

‘A fundamentally shy person, Kickl only started enjoying interactions with the public a few years ago. Prior to that, he was happy to remain in the background, as an industrious worker in the party’s engine room. But in 2017, having been named interior minister by Chancellor Kurz against his will, the former philosophy student and hobby Hegelian suddenly found that the spotlight wasn’t so bad after all. An iconic image from 2018 shows the beaming interior minister proudly astride a horse.’

(…)

‘Which goals the FPÖ boss might actually be able to implement will largely depend on the drastically weakened ÖVP’s appetite for resistance. In addition, unlike Orbán in Budapest, Kickl would not enjoy a two-thirds parliamentary majority with an FPÖ-ÖVP coalition and would thus be unable to pass constitutional amendments.
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen has promised to demand respect for the "cornerstones of democracy.” It was Van der Bellen who dismissed Kickl from the Interior Ministry in 2019, and the president also seemed to indicate in 2023, as he was beginning his second term as head of state, that he wouldn’t be willing to swear in Kickl to the Chancellery. He said that as president, he would hardly be willing to empower "an anti-European party, a party that does not condemn Russia’s war against Ukraine.”’

(…)

‘Will the FPÖ, under its disciplinarian leader Herbert Kickl, be able to shed its reputation as a party that reliably self-implodes as soon as it becomes part of government? The ascetic Kickl, an extreme triathlete in his spare time, is seen as far less likely than his predecessors to fall victim to a lack of self-control. On the contrary: The concern is more that of a systemic crisis stemming from an increasing urge to exert control.
It was Kickl who, as interior minister in 2018, was partly responsible for an armed raid on BVT, the country’s domestic intelligence agency at the time, for alleged corruption. The commando operation was a disaster. Kickl was suspected of having targeted undesirable agents for political reasons and the police confiscated confidential documents. The international reputation of Austrian secret service agencies was damaged and remains so today. Later came suspicions that the BVT may have been infiltrated by Russian spies.
Kickl has said that his preferred activity for recuperating from the rigors of his job is mountain climbing. During the last campaign, he was asked when he thought he would finally be able to relax a bit. The response of the FPÖ leader: "Maybe once we have achieved our great goal.” He meant: Moving into the Chancellery on Ballhausplatz in Vienna.’

Read the article here.

The great goal, well, the winds of change are blowing in the right direction for the FPÖ.

We will see whether the demolition of political parties like the FPÖ ist just rhetoric for the elections or a more serious project.

In that case, the new world order might arrive sooner than we expected.