{"id":9630,"date":"2016-12-05T16:25:12","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T16:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=9630"},"modified":"2016-12-05T17:15:45","modified_gmt":"2016-12-05T17:15:45","slug":"austria-not-voted-for-elite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/austria-not-voted-for-elite\/","title":{"rendered":"Austria has not voted for the Elite!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alexander<\/a>
Alexander van der Bellen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Austria has seemingly embraced an EU-friendly, migrant-welcoming view of the world<\/a><\/strong> in electing Alexander Van der Bellen as its President and rejecting the Freedom Party’s Norbert Hofer.<\/p>\n

Herr Van der Bellen, a former leader of the Green party, said he would be an \u201copen-minded, liberal-minded and above all a pro-European president\u201d. \u00a0Herr Hofer might feel aggrieved at that. \u00a0He was not exactly campaigning for an Austrian exit from the EU either.<\/p>\n

THE ANTI-ELITE MOOD IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Austrians are said to be pro-European Union, but despite the sense of relief in Eurocrat corridors of power, we should not think the prevailing anti-elite mood has had an abrupt about-turn.<\/p>\n

Crucially, mainstream politicians were not in the running. \u00a0The Social Democratic Party<\/a><\/strong> (SP\u00d6) and Austrian People’s Party<\/a><\/strong> (\u00d6VP) candidates came fourth and fifth in the April 2016 first round, behind Herr Hofer, who won, Herr Van der Bellen, second, and independent Irmgard Griss<\/a><\/strong> in third place\u00a0. \u00a0This allowed the Green Party’s avuncular Herr Van der Bellen to claim to be an ‘outsider’, just like Herr Hofer.<\/p>\n

\"Norbert<\/a>
Norbert Hofer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The significance of the first round\u00a0was that parties winning over 50% of the vote for the\u00a0Parliament in 2003 (see below) were soundly rejected by the electorate.<\/p>\n

So when Werner Kogler, a Green party politician, described the result as<\/a><\/strong> a \u201csmall global turning of the tide in these uncertain, not to say hysterical and even stupid times\u201d, he missed the point, as well as casting voters in the UK and USA as stupid.<\/p>\n

VOTING PATTERNS IN AUSTRIA<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Freedom party secretary, Herbert Kickl, was more astute. \u00a0He\u00a0acted as Hofer\u2019s campaign manager and was well aware that the establishment had swung behind\u00a0Herr Van Der Bellen, but quietly. \u00a0He\u00a0said: \u201cIn this case the establishment \u2013 which pitched in once again to block, to stonewall and to prevent renewal \u2013 has won.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 2003 Austrian Parliamentary elections<\/a><\/strong>, the Greens<\/a><\/strong> polled 12.42% of the vote, winning 24 seats. \u00a0Hofer’s Freedom Party, the\u00a0FP\u00d6<\/a><\/strong>, polled 20.51% and won 40 seats. \u00a0Between them, the\u00a0SP\u00d6 and \u00d6VP had over 50% of the vote and 99 seats. \u00a0Clearly, many of their supporters voted for Herr Van der Bellen. \u00a0But equally, a good number voted for Norbert Hofer, concerned about immigration and jobs.<\/p>\n

An analysis of the voting patterns in May is highly revealing<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0Men voted considerably more for Hofer, women for Van der Bellen. \u00a0The young were somewhat more inclined to go for Van der Bellen. The working class were overwhelmingly for Hofer. \u00a0Cities voted for Van der Bellen, the countryside for Hofer. \u00a0This time around is likely to have returned similar results.<\/p>\n

ONE MAN’S REFUGEE …<\/strong><\/p>\n

Herr Hofer was castigated \u00a0by some for apparent antipathy to “the weak, poor and vulnerable \u00a0– who today particularly include refugees and foreigners\u201d. \u00a0The barb\u00a0had significance in the country which gave birth to Adolf Hitler. \u00a0Indeed, so well did the ‘far-right’ label stick (but was Hitler actually far-right or far-left?) that Herr Hofer’s posters were routinely defaced with little moustaches.<\/p>\n

But one man’s refugee is another man’s economic migrant and yet a third man’s terrorist infiltrator<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0After an initial welcoming stance, and also lying on the Hungary to Germany route, the Austrian Government clamped down, and today\u00a0caps applications for asylum at 37,500 per year<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Christian position may well remember the Holy Family were refugees in Egypt, but they did not go there to subvert the Egyptian government, start a wave of crime or begin a campaign of\u00a0terror.<\/p>\n

There is a theological balance to be struck between hospitality and security, as I show in this video:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n