European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 8 July | 121 comments (121 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Austrian Government Headed for Early Elections | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 07.07.2008

Austrians will likely go to the polls in September after a leadership crisis brought an end to a partnership between Social Democrats and the conservative People's Party.
The government of Austria's Social Democratic Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer is coming to an end after the conservative People's Party called for early elections on Monday, July 7.
According to sources within the Social Democratic Party, Gusenbauer told the party leadership on Monday that he would not run for chancellor in the upcoming vote. He proposed current party leader and Transport Minister Werner Faymann as the new top candidate, Austrian media reported.
Vice Chancellor Wilhelm Molterer, the leader of the People's Party, said the Social Democrats' current leadership crisis had led the cabinet into a "dead end" and elections by September were the only way out.

by Fran on Mon Jul 7th, 2008 at 03:24:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (4.00 / 3)

Sad, sad, sad. The constant infighting hurt the SocDems (SPÖ, down 8 points to 27% since elections), less so the conservatives (ÖVP, town 1 point to 33%) The far-right FPÖ, which is scary without Haider too, profited (doubling to 21%), Greens less (14%, +3).

As far as I understand the story, the last episode concerned the EU. The SPÖ leaders announced an intention to hold referenda on future EU treaties in an LTE to a newspaper, and both the move and the way it was announced led to outrage within the party, within the coalition, within the population, and in the EU Commission.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Mon Jul 7th, 2008 at 05:03:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (4.00 / 2)

The newspaper in question is Austria's leading tabloid which has a modus operandi similar to the Murdoch-press. Basically it bashes immigrants and Brussels for a living and was instrumental in the rise of the FPÖ. Given its abysmal performance since the election it seems that the SPÖ was running for cover and inadvertently gave the ÖVP an excuse to break the coalition.

by generic on Tue Jul 8th, 2008 at 09:02:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (none / 1)

Could you flesh that out in a diary?

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Tue Jul 8th, 2008 at 09:56:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (4.00 / 2)

I'll do what I can. It will probably take some time though.

by generic on Tue Jul 8th, 2008 at 02:10:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (none / 1)

Thanks! I was trying to make sense of things from dry news reports, but I'm not as plugged into Austrian news as I am into German ones... (that I no longer get ORF1 on cable also plays a role).

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Tue Jul 8th, 2008 at 02:20:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 8 July | 121 comments (121 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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