Austrians and their young democratic state experienced a true roller-coaster-ride recently. They failed to reform their outdated government system, hold crazy presidential elections and signed an agenda initiative against the controversial free trade agreements CETA and TTIP in record high numbers, reports Bruno Kaufmann.
It is not that the people in this central European Alpine Republic do not care: To the contrary! By the end of january more than a half million people had signed a citizens´ initiative to ban any Austrian participation in free trade agreements between Austria and Canada (CETA) and the United States (TTIP). Out of 40 nationwide citizens initiatives since 1964 the 562’552 gathered signatures (within just one week) the proposal is the 11th most popular. Under Austrian law, such an initiative must be considered by the national parliament, if at least 100’000 citizens have supported it. However, there is no obligation for parliament to implement to the proposal and or to trigger a national popular vote on it.
Last year Austrians voted in a series of presidential elections despite surprising weaknesses in the electoral process. After a first round with six candidates, the frontrunners of the main parties - the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the Austrian Popular party were eliminated. In a first run-off former Green party leader Alexander van der Bellen narrowly beat far-right candidate Norbert Hofer, 50,35 % to 49,65% of the vote. In this second decisive turnout raised rising from 68 to 72 percent. However, the losing far-right Freedom party (FPÖ) successfully challenged this victory in the Constitutional Court, which found several flaws in the electoral process.
That led to a call for another election, and broad pessimism around the country. Also contributing tot he mailaise: the failure of attempts by the main parties in Parliament to democratize the party system, replacing old-style patriarchs with a democracy package that was supposd to empower citizens.
The near-Trump experience
The political crisis deepened with the failure of a third attempt to elect a president because of technical reasons - the envelopes of the postal ballots would not close properly. After the third election, many people started to fear a return to autocratic times under a president Hofer, who - much like Mr. Trump in the U.S. - promised to muck out he what he called a corrupt elite in parliament and government.
But Austria bypassed this nightmare with a black eye, as even more citizens turned out in a last and final electoral attempt on December 4. Three out of four eligible Austrians participated in this historic vote and gave Mr. Van der Bellen a surprisingly clear victory of 54-46%.
Last week, the 73-year-old former Green Party Leader took office on January 26, offering in his inauguration speech a healthy contrast to the "America First"-demagogy of the 45th US president. Van der Bellen called instead for a tolerant and diverse nation, free of ideological and racial hatred, furthermore embracing the idea of a transnational democratic Europe. As his remarks came just before international Holocaust Day, the new Austrian president also reminded its people to never forget the "darkest side of Austria", when the country was deeply involved in racial cleansing and support of the Nazis´ anti-Semitic policies.
Rebuilding parliament
At the same time as the Anti-TTIP/CETA-citizens initiative delivered it´s impressive results on January 30, the governing SPö/ÖVP-coalition launched it´s new working program until the next election in the fall of 2018. Not one sentence is dedicated to the critical situation of democracy in the country. Instead a group of political scientists and active citizens have launched the work on a comprehensive reform program for people power in Austria, starting by rebuilding parliament. It focus on both the division of powers and the power of public dialogue. And there are more promising news: today´s Austrian republic has a healthy local and regional level of democracy. In city-states like Vienna (with more than two million citizens) or the state of Vorarlberg, tools of participatory and direct democracy are increasingly well-developed and diligently used. Of course, there also other states like Carinthia and Burgenland with a persistent political culture of nostalgic authoritarism similar to Victor Orban´s Hungary, which lies just across the border. It will take a major effort by the new head of state (and it´s citizens!) to open Austria for a new kind of modern democracy, where both the parliament and the initiative and referendum system are reformed, and strengthened.
