France and Austria: Ominous Political Parallels?

by Stephan Richter*

The coalition negotiations of the democratic center in Austria have failed, largely because of the intransigence of the country’s Social Democrats. This is a situation politically quite similar to what is going on in France. There, too, the Socialists refuse to cooperate sensibly with the parties of the center and center-right.

What is happening in Austria is a clear warning signal for France. The fact that the hard-right FPO — the Austrian equivalent of Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National in France — has now gotten the nod from Austria’s very reluctant President to build a government coalition is a direct result of Austria‘s Social Democrats’ intransigence.

All of this is not because Austria’s center-right and the center liberals could not agree on a way forward, but because the left-wing Social Democrats have been adamant about no budget cuts.

Like France, Austria boasts a very generous welfare state. However, the Austrian economy is no longer strong enough to generate the financial means to support such largesse.

Under those circumstances, some trimming — especially in pensions and the public sector — is inevitable.

Conclusion

Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orban must be delighted by such a deliberate form of self-mutilation of Austria’s democratic center at the hands of SPO — the country’s long-ruling, but now fading left-of-center party.

Which leads us to the pivotal question in a wider Europan context: Will the French Socialists pay attention and draw the right conclusions from the events in Austria for the political fate of their own nation?

For now, one must doubt it.

*Director of the Global Ideas Center, a global network of authors and analysts, and Editor-in-Chief of The Globalist
**first published in: Theglobalist.com