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Austria’s Elections: A Q&A with Ricochet Member Lilibellt
As you’ve probably read, Norbert Hofer of Austria’s Freedom party (FPÖ) narrowly lost Austria’s recent presidential election. It was very close. The population of Austria is about 8.5 million; Hofer was defeated by 31,000 votes. The tie-breaking votes were postal votes, and these are now the subject of controversy: the Austrian interior minister has launched a probe into “irregularities” in postal voting. The near-election of Hofer, it has been widely reported, threw Europe into a panic:
There was an audible sigh of relief throughout Europe this week when the far-right candidate very narrowly failed to gain the highest office in Austria.
But the message from Austria is still very clear: Politics have changed, new forces are gaining strength, and there is no immediate turning back. And this applies well beyond Austria’s borders. …
But the reporting on this has been thin in the English-language press, and has failed to explain much about this party’s historical background, what exactly it means to call Hofer’s party “far-right,” and why Austria’s politics have changed.
Lilibellt and her husband in a wine cellar in Vienna.
One of our members, Lilibellt, was born and grew up in Innsbruck, the capital of Tyrol. She now lives in Vienna. She reluctantly voted for the FPÖ. Although she says she’s not a typical FPÖ voter, I suspect her perspective will give you more insight into Austrian politics than you’ll find elsewhere in the Anglophone press.
Lilibellt is 42 years old, and she works in the construction industry, as a project manager. In the past week, she and I exchanged an epic series of e-mails about Austrian history and politics, Europe, and immigration, totaling almost 20,000 words. We wanted to share our exchange with Ricochet, although obviously 20,000 words is too long and confusing for a single post.
Exchanging e-mails (even with a well-informed interlocutor) isn’t the same as journalism. The only way I can feel confident in reporting about this is by seeing it for myself and speaking to as many people, of as many different opinions, as possible. I haven’t set foot in Vienna in nearly 25 years. But Lilibellt has generously offered to introduce me to people on all sides of the political spectrum in Austria, and I plan to take her up on it. Austria is in some ways at the heart of the crisis in Europe, both geographically and historically, and spending time there will be especially interesting for the book I’m now researching.
For now, though, we both thought Ricochet would be interested in our e-mail. We’ll be posting the rest of it here, too, in a series, over the coming week. We’ve reorganized and edited the exchange for clarity and brevity.
PART I: THE MIGRANT CRISIS
Lilibellt: What we’re witnessing right now in Europe – to paraphrase Max Weber – is a battle between the ethics of responsibility and the ethics of opinion. Immigration, up to a point, is a very good thing, but we [Austria] have done a very poor job of integrating Muslim immigrants from 10, 20, and 30 years ago. And I think you are with me on the necessity to differentiate between refugees and migrants, if only to help as many traumatized refugees as possible, aren’t you? [I am. — Claire] There is a factual limit to how many people you can let into a country and care for. If the available capacities are used up by migrants (who most likely will be turned away – from Afghanistan, Somalia, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, etc., but only after years of processing them due to our judicial system), there will be no place for real refugees.
After the Yugoslavian war, Austria took in the largest part of the refugees – real refugees – and they overall integrated very well into Austrian society. But this time, three-quarters of the asylum seekers, according to Eurostat, are male. This suggests to me that there is no imminent threat to their parents, wives, and children. They wouldn’t leave them behind unsecured and helpless, would they? [We discuss this statistic and what it means later in our exchange, which we’ll post this week — Claire.]
The official crime statistics show that more than a third of the “asylum seekers” in Vienna are committing crimes. Vienna was one of the safest metropolises in the world, without any no-go areas. When crime reports from the police or in newspapers don’t disclose the nationality or ethnic characteristic of the perpetrators of crime because it would be “racist,” girls and women are kept in the dark. There have been thefts, assaults, rapes (of children and of a 70-year-old woman) and even murders, including the murder of an American woman who was studying in Vienna. The reports that most outrage me are the growing accounts of sexual assault and rape of women and children in refugee camps on Austrian and German soil. How many more unreported cases are there? We can’t even guarantee the security of the weakest and protect the real refugees from the very threats they were fleeing from. It’s a disgrace.
[The protection of refugees] is a very serious concern for me. My husband and I have helped many people with a migrant background over the years. Our most recent involvement was last year, with a Chechen family. My husband, who speaks Russian, organized a very well-paid security job for the father and also helped to find an affordable flat and a school for the children in Vienna. I don’t want to self-congratulate us too much, but I think I can say with enough confidence that within our means, my husband and I have done more to help migrants than many of the vocal advocates of this “welcome refugee” action. And by all means, even more are welcome, either real refugees or migrants with minimum work skills, but on the crucial condition, yet to be established, that breaking the law (any offence, from battery upward) will result in immediate deportation.
Asylum should not be granted to everybody whose life is in danger. (Criminals like drug dealers, and so forth, who are facing the death penalty for these crimes in their home states should be deported regardless – just think about it: In order not to get deported, you only have to commit a severe enough crime – three years in an Austrian prison and you can never ever be deported!) But asylum should, more broadly, be granted to people who are persecuted because of their religion, politics or race, not only when they are threatened with death. (I would think torture is no walk in the park either.)
It’s okay that things change, even become more difficult, but there is something disturbingly casual about the way that a society gives up on hard-fought achievements (yes, especially for women), on internal security, and on selecting who is allowed to enter the country in order to comply with this quixotic imperative of open borders. It is so much easier to destroy than to rebuild. I am not so much angry as deeply saddened, and I still consider myself – but perhaps in an anachronistic way – pro-immigration.
PART II: THE NAZI PAST OF THE FPÖ
Claire: This makes sense, and certainly doesn’t sound like a “racist” or “xenophobic” perspective. But this is the way FPÖ voters are usually described in the Anglophone media. The FPÖ is also usually described as a “far-right” party. This term isn’t helpful: What does that mean, exactly? What is meaningful, and what alarms me, are the party’s links with Putin [we discuss this in a later email exchange], and that the FPÖ was founded, in 1956, by Nazis. The party’s first leader, Anton Reinthaller, was an SS Brigadeführer. Not a “neo-Nazi,” or “someone so offensive that he was compared to a Nazi,” but an actual Nazi, full stop —
Lilibellt: — I am really not sure if I would put it like this. The FPÖ was founded in 1955 through a merger with the VdU [the Federation of Independents]. The first head of the FPÖ, elected in 1956, was – as you stated correctly – an actual Nazi. But before that, the VdU had been for a decade the third political camp, apart from the socialist and conservative party. It was founded by two liberal-conservative journalists (Herbert Alois Kraus, who was court-martialed by the Nazis, and Viktor Reimann, who was in the resistance and imprisoned between 1940 and 1945). Its members were mainly the displaced and returnees from the war, but also former NSDAP members.
I want to point this out, because up until recently there was a battle between the national(ist) and liberal-conservative wing of the FPÖ. It would nevertheless be absolutely accurate to say that the FPÖ was the only political party in Austria with a Nazi as its leader. But then, we need to note that the SPÖ [the Social Democratic Party] was the only party in Austria with Nazis in the actual government (1971). By the same definition, the UN (1972-1981), and later Austria (1986-1992) had a Nazi as president, remember Kurt Waldheim (ÖVP)? [Austrian People’s Party]
Claire: Yeah, I remember him. I also remember that in 1958, Reinthaller was replaced by Friedrich Peter, another Nazi. He joined the NSDAP in 1938 and volunteered for the Waffen-SS at the age of 17. Simon Wiesenthal revealed that he had served at the western and eastern fronts as an Obersturmführer in the 10th regiment of the 1st SS Infantry Brigade, parts of which were detached to Einsatzgruppe C, which systematically exterminated hundreds of thousands of Jews. His unit was almost exclusively engaged in this activity —
Lilibellt: —and he went on to have a long and successful political career, which is typical of the shady resumés of many postwar politicians (in all Austrian parties). In 1966, the extreme right, nationalist members left the party and founded a new, short-lived party, the NDP [National Democratic Party]. In the meantime, Friedrich Peter had become their ideological opponent. He forced them out in order to strengthen the liberal-conservative wing of the FPÖ. This took place five years before the most famous postwar Austrian chancellor, Bruno Kreisky — who was Jewish and the leader of the Socialist Party — was sworn in as Chancellor along with five Nazis as his ministers!
Peter was subsequently the cause of the Kreisky-Wiesenthal conflict [the feud with Nazi hunter Wiesenthal]. He negotiated a coalition between the SPÖ and FPÖ in 1983, and he condemned the subsequent leader of the FPÖ, Jörg Haider, for his remark that the Third Reich at least had produced a good employment policy, unlike the SPÖ. Finally, Peter even left the party in 1992 over disagreements about the FPÖ’s new-found opposition to Austria’s EU accession —
Claire: — You used to be a leftist who protested against having the FPÖ in government. How did the party come to speak for you?
Lilibellt: I voted FPÖ, first, for reasons of political hygiene: For a parliamentary system to work, it is vital to be able to vote a government out of office every once in awhile. But that seemed more and more unlikely in a country where the major parties have been bound together in a coalition for decades, with few interruption. Now, as they’re losing more votes from election to election, the Green Party and the Neos [The New Austria and Liberal Forum] are preparing to jump in to ensure the continuation of the status quo in exchange for one or two ministerial posts. So I went from being a protester against the government because of the participation of the FPÖ to being a supporter of the very party that I opposed years ago. The only opposition party left is the FPÖ.
Claire: Has the party changed to allow you to be more comfortable voting for it? Is your view, “Their history is unpleasant and embarrassing, but they’ve changed, and if they’re the only ones willing to address [the migration crisis], what choice do we have?” or do you think, “Of course we don’t really want them in power, this is a protest vote to show how desperate and angry we are that there’s no proper opposition party?”
Lilibellt: Actually, both. Just to clarify, it is impossible to vote for any party in Austria that never had any Nazi members, except probably for the Green Party and other small parties, because they were founded much later. But even then you can’t be a 100-percent sure. That is the proverbial ambiguity of the Austrian soul. The numbers of Austrian resistance fighters were modest. The FPÖ still has some members with contacts on the [hardcore nationalist] far right, just as there are classical liberals in their ranks. I am not deluding myself. I was nevertheless determined to vote for the FPÖ in the presidential elections no matter what, because all other parties were indistinguishable in their stance on the so-called refugee-crisis —
Claire: — The participation of the FPÖ in the Austrian government in 2000 was an international scandal —
Lilibellt: — Yes. Basically, after WWII the two major parties, ÖVP and SPÖ, split Austria up between them. You can call the coalition between ÖVP and FPÖ with Haider, from 2000-2007, an interregnum. Haider had to give up on becoming vice-chancellor because he was such a controversial figure. International protests had already started, and the Austrian president was reluctant to inaugurate this government at all. There were weekly protests on the streets, as you mentioned earlier – what fun it was, I never felt so self-righteous again in my whole life.
Claire: The sanctions were finally lifted. Remind us what happened to Jörg Haider?
Lilibellt: So Haider, whose personality wasn’t suited for standing in the second tier, split the party and founded a new one – the BZÖ [Alliance for the Future of Austria]. A very interesting turn of events indeed. In the ‘80s, Haider — with the help of the nationalistic faction of the Freedom Party — staged a coup against then FPÖ-leader Norbert Steger. Steger represented the classical-liberal wing of the party; he ousted the more nationalistic members and was, contrary to Haider, vice-chancellor of a SPÖ/FPÖ coalition (1980-1984) and vice-president of the Liberal International.
Then, 20 years later, Haider staged another coup, but this time against the nationalist wing of the party. His political star was rising again, but then he was killed in a car accident (under – depending on who you ask – more or less suspicious circumstances). After his death, there were rumors that he had been having a homosexual affair with his assistant. He was a political talent of a lifetime – a very sharp mind, with a deep knowledge of history and rhetorical skills. He was a man of means, too, and not dependent upon holding political office for income. Politically, he was an opportunist if not a cynic. He was surely one of the last Austrian politicians to read von Mises, Friedman, Schumpeter, et al., and I think the liberal way of thinking was closer to his heart. But when it came to power he chose whichever side was more likely to win. He had no reservations at all about extreme nationalists and revisionists, though! What disgusted me the most were his connections to the Gaddafi family. He was very close to one of the Gadhafi sons. It would have been hard for me to vote for the FPÖ if he’d still been on top of the ticket, even for the above-mentioned political hygiene reasons. I think you can relate in light of the Trump candidacy —
Claire: What exactly happened to the FPÖ after its separation from the BZÖ?
Lilibellt: Haider went back to being governor of Carinthia until his death. Many members of the FPÖ joined Haider’s BZÖ, which was still in a coalition with the ÖVP. H.C. Strache picked up the pieces that were left of the FPÖ. There were and are hardly any liberals left in the party; but on the other hand, the hardcore nationalists disappeared too. (Mostly, they died.) Strache is no Haider — not even a miniature version of him. He’s a descendent of Sudeten Germans who were expelled from Czechoslovakia after WWII, raised by single mother in Vienna. But in 2006, pictures surfaced of him at the age of 19, showing him the uniform of a Wiking-Jugen [German neo-Nazi youth organization, banned in Austria in 1994]. That lent credibility to allegations that he had been intimate with neo-Nazi-circles until his mid-twenties.
Haider had invented a very distinct, snarky speaking style; many FPÖ-members – including Strache – imitate him to this day. Strache worked very hard to lead the FPÖ back to its glory days by broadening its base and bringing in new members without problematic backgrounds. The FPÖ is now at its core a social democratic party, concentrating on Austrian problems — and it’s critical of immigration.
Claire: We’ll get back to that, but what do you think about the other parties and candidates in the recent election?
Lilibellt: I didn’t bother to watch any of the other candidates. I already knew them from previous elections or from political offices they had held. I had already made up my mind to vote FPÖ, and they run, for the most part, rather dull candidates, so I wasn’t even very interested in Norbert Hofer. I knew he was the third president of the Austrian parliament, but nothing else about him was memorable to me. Then he initiated a signature campaign to protect the use of cash. [After the EU decided to withdraw the 500 Euro bill, rumors circulated in Austria that the EU planned to completely abolish the use of cash.] So I listened to the man for the first time and – imagine my surprise! – I was really impressed. Hofer wasn’t your typical FPÖ candidate. He didn’t display the aggressive, provocative, vindictive, snotty demeanor common to protest candidates (just look at Trump).
Twenty years ago, Hofer would have been a candidate for the conservative party. He’s from a deep black (equivalent to deep red in America) family in a little town called Pinkafeld. He joined the FPÖ early on. He emphasized his positions in a calm, self-confident manner; they were common sense, and would have been proposed in exactly the same way by any conservative politician only a decade ago.
So I looked him up: He had no known connection to any neo-Nazi organization. He was raised in a politically Christian, socially conservative family. He’s the co-author of the new FPÖ-program. He’s remarried to a geriatric nurse and he has three children. He’s a practicing Christian. After a paragliding accident almost left him paralyzed, he can now only walk with a stick. I see Norbert Hofer more in the tradition of Norbert Steger, but this remains to be seen and perhaps is only wishful thinking on my part.
In conversation with journalists and political opponents he came across conciliatory, but not obsequious, never apologetic. That impressed me the most. For example: When he was asked about his firearms in a shrill, almost hysterical tone by a female reporter he explained to her – not in a condescending way, he was very earnest and friendly – how focusing on the shot is almost meditative. The expression on the face of the reporter was priceless. He was good-natured overall. This is a conservative man through and through, with a conservative temperament and demeanor. If he’s a co-author of his party program, it means he is not only the front-man, with a friendly face, but also one of the brains behind the party. “I have to take a closer look at the FPÖ as they are now,” I thought to myself. That’s what I’ve been doing in my spare time since when I am not writing emails to you explaining why I voted FPÖ.
Do you see the difference?
*************
I asked Lilibellt many more questions — about the migrant crisis, human trafficking, Turkish immigrants in Austria, Merkel, Putin, and other issues in Austrian and European politics. We also discussed the similarities and differences between the Austrian and the American electoral campaign. We’ll post these exchanges in the coming days.
In the meantime, please do ask her any questions you have about what things look like from Vienna. And please contribute if you’d like me to get out of my armchair and do my own reporting from Austria: Lilibellt and I are in complete agreement that far too few journalists are doing this, particularly along the migrant trail.
Kozak,
There is still a communist party KPÖ in Austria today, that was member of the first provisional government after WWII (because Austria was still occupied by the Soviets) and had seats in the Austrian parliament up to the 50’s and in provincial parliaments until 1970, they returned to a provincial parliament in 2005, namely in the province of Styria (4-5% of the votes).
Our future President, Van der Bellen, in his youth was a self-declared communist, later on joined the SPÖ until finally he became member and subsequently the head of the Green Party. The outgoing President, Fischer, for example was founding member of the North Korean Friendship Group.
Please note, that being sympathetic towards Communist ideas doesn’t create a scandal neither in Austria nor in Germany.
Oh I know. They get a pass at Harvard and Berkeley in the US, in fact almost any faculty lounge. Our current administration has a huge soft spot for them. Funny how the ideology that actually has killed more people then any other in History gets a pass.
I wanted that info to see what the situation in Austria is from my conservative American perspective.
ps. Is that picture from the Augustinerkeller ?
Sure, communism was the biggest, worst imperial power. But you cut yourself off from effective means of combating it and any would-be successors if you deny that the United States was an imperialist, colonial power. Partly this is because you cut yourself off from the good case made by the critics of imperialism at the turn of the 20th century.
Honestly, I don’t remember, but it could be, you are right! When my husband is back, I’ll ask him, he surely knows.
How did you enjoy Vienna besides the Palastinian “folklore”?
Ret,
I’m not even going to go there. This is ridiculous. Lenin was a great man. He knew all about those terrible Capitalist Imperialists and their desire to hold the third world down. Sure he did. This is the infantile garbage that got the whole lunatic Communist project off the ground. America is the least naturally Imperialist power on the face of the earth. Communism virtually breeds Imperialism. We shipped relief wheat to Lenin within the first few years of the glorious revolution. He had declared the NEP (or in common parlance capitalism) as the communist doctrine (as it always does) was starving the Russian people to death. Why would we do that? Probably because we horrible capitalist exploiters felt sorry for starving people. Weird huh.
Deciding to be isolationist by cutting yourself off from trade with the rest of the world in an effort to be so pure as to never be accused of Imperial anything is a huge loser. As for the Anti-Imperialist League, it sounds good on paper doesn’t it? However, in practice:
Cosmopolitan Right will always require the use of some force. Those that obsess over perfection end up being co-opted into the hands of the worst offenders. Translation: We need NATO and so does Europe.
Regards,
Jim
We loved it. Our favorite memory was sitting outside the Opera listening to Mozart having a Großer Brauner and a Sacher Tort.
Well, Jim, you’re accusing me of a lot of things I didn’t say. And you still, after several tries, have ignored the anti-imperialist critique of the late 19th century.
I think the problem comes down to you being soft on leftism and lacking the killer instinct to take it down.
Ret,
I haven’t accused you of anything and I have no idea what you are talking about. I assume you are kidding. William Jennings Bryan never took down anybody or anything. He was useless. Your Anti-Imperialist League never did anything but play into the narrative of Marxism. I think they bought Lenin the ticket for his sealed train back to Moscow. (just kidding)
You can’t take down leftists by granting them their most absurd premises for openers.
Regards,
Jim
Klemens von Metternich, call your office.
“God rot all Royals. Give us the wisdom of the Americans”
Mr Fox
The Madness of King George
More likely they were playing into the narrative of the United States of America, which developed a critique of colonialism and imperialism before Marx was even born. Thomas Jefferson wrote about it.
They didn’t succeed in stopping it, any more than we will succeed in stopping Clinton and Trump. But what they said was effective as a reminder to people of the basis for forming our country, even though many people in power managed to ignore it.
You most certainly can, if they are premises that they should be held to, and if they are good premises that our country was based on. Alinskey tactics: Make them live up to their ideals.
These are techniques that helped bring down the fall of the USSR. The USSR exercised imperial control when it invaded Hungary in 1956, for example, but that behavior lost it the respect of labor movements worldwide. That had downstream consequences. Wouldn’t have worked if it wasn’t a matter of holding it to its ideals.
Ret,
Sorry but I don’t think yielding the moral equivalence of the American experience to the monstrous record of Communism is any place to start. We undermine our own legitimacy doing this. Probably one of the immediate effects of the Anti-Imperialist league was to inflate the ego of TR so much as make him lose grip on reality. He bucked Taft in 1912 and Woodrow Wilson was the result. Wilson brought back pure racism to the American government as he was a believer in Eugenics. Wilson’s arrogant lame above it all attitude probably contributed to the general lack of trust leading to WWI. TR was actually encouraging the absurd narrative that made America the moral equivalent of Imperialist Europe destroying the last bit of legitimacy of liberal democracy. It would take more than 100 million dead in war and hundreds of millions more to be enslaved before your “Alinsky” tactic worked. I’d prefer not trying it again.
We are not morally equivalent to Imperial Europe or The Communist Bloc.
Regards,
Jim
Then don’t do that. And if you find somebody who advocates it, report him to me. I have ways to deal with such people.
Ret,
Unfortunately, the Anti-Imperialism League and William Jennings Bryan were in that category. Whether it was conscious or unconscious it doesn’t matter once the cat was out of the bag. American Presidential politics is an extremely dangerous high stakes game to play. Taft would have been boring but boring was better than what happened.
Trump is vulgar but the chaos that would ensue if our party doesn’t accept the decision won fairly at the polls is far worse. Let the other side show what contempt they have for the will of the people and impose a candidate after the fact of the primaries.
Then let’s have at it.
Regards,
Jim
It’s not a category. It’s something you do. And you haven’t provided an instance of them doing it. For one thing, Communist rule hadn’t even started at that time.
Ret,
The original Marxist theory had no special place for the role of Imperialism. Lenin added this to the theory plus the justification of using violence to directly attain the goal. His postulate was that liberal democracy was inherently Imperialistic. Bryan with his irrational extreme criticism of financial institutions and his equating of all foreign economic activity as Imperialism set the stage for the Leninist narrative to be taken seriously. Wilson’s weak leadership playing upon racial fears allowed Europe to be further estranged from faith in liberal institutions. WWI was the result. This opened the door for the Bolshevik Revolution.
I think it was a self-inflicted wound. Liberal democracy is not inherently Imperialistic. In fact, our constitutional system is the greatest check upon it. A totalitarian system such as Communism is inherently prone to hegemonistic Imperialism. We are confused because we imagine that we can still withdraw from the world economy and just adhere to the Jeffersonian ideal of the North American market. Unfortunately, the world had grown in economic sophistication and we were required to respond to it. That isn’t the same as being an Imperialist. Bryan and the Anti-Imperialist League were irresponsibly demagoguing the issue. They provided the political environment for Leninism to thrive. It isn’t an indictment or a conspiracy theory. It is rather an unfortunate fact. We don’t want to make this kind of mistake again.
Regards,
Jim
Oh, my word. I didn’t know that. I knew he was a bit sordid, but that’s really in its own league. Is that this group? (Austria’s not listed as a member, but perhaps that’s a mistake.)
Do you have any insight into what it is about the Austrian political process that produces so much nuttiness? And how is it that despite this, Austria’s managed to be a flourishing, developed, orderly country with a high standard of living, one of the world’s longest life expectancies, and a reputation as a wonderful place to live? It doesn’t seem that lunacy’s an obstacle to office. Yet clearly it’s been doing something right.
Hardly. I’ll bet you made that up. For one thing, the anti-Imperialist League was in the United States, and Leninism took hold in Russia.
Unless you want to make the case that the Declaration of Independence provided the political environment for Leninism to thrive. I suppose in a way it contributed, but that’s not nearly the same as provided.
From the Wichita Eagle, 20 October 1898, in defense of McKinley’s policy of imperialism. Note that “expansion” is being advocated. This is not just a matter of providing Navy refueling and re-provisioning stations. Note the phrase, “…we being the sole exclusive judges.” Hardly one of America’s founding principles.
And although there is much rhetoric and mockery of the anti-Imperialist faction in our nation, nowhere are they being accused of setting the stage for Marxism or Communism.
Other articles in other papers, such as the above from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (12 October 1898) referred to the commercial importance of expansion. This is colonialism, pure and simple. It is not free-enterprise capitalism. It is not Adam Smith.
Sorry, but it is the Austrian North Korean Friendship Group.
Better link.
Thank you, genferei. I fixed it.
Wow. Yes, I’m beginning to understand the dilemma. This is particularly bizarre because it’s so unforced: Why would anyone go out on a limb to embrace North Korea? Not like there’s a large North Korean voting bloc he’s hoping to attract, is there?
Later that summer in Berlin I was about 100 yards from the Holocaust Memorial just by the Tiergarten and ran into a Palestinian rally that was really vile. It’s proximity to the memorial was infuriating.
Probably involves large bundles of Euros.
Or as Metternich put it, “The Balkans begin at Landstrasse (3rd district of Vienna).”
Is juche any nuttier than Bolivarianism? Did you know there is a mainstream political party in the US that, in living memory – and much more recently than the second World War – contained high-level officials who were KKK bosses? And what about the Dem 9/11 truthers?
Lots of things look nutty if you’re used to a different kind of nuttiness.
I’ve heard “Asia begins at the Landstrasse” and “The Balkans begin at the Rennweg.” For members of Ricochet who want to debate what he said, what he meant, and where they begin, here’s some background reading. Lili, I’m going to ask you to take me there to look for myself and decide. I’ve seen the Balkans and Asia, after all, I should be able to settle this debate instantly and save many future academics a lot of time.
You have to make a difference between Vienna and the rest of the country (I felt the same about Paris and France). Remember, I come from the Western part of the country, the people there traditionally don’t like the Viennese very much and they are more like Bavarians or Swiss mentality-wise. I took me several years to feel at home here and I think it is no coincidence that the psycho-analysis was invented in Vienna.
If you are in the mood of more Austrian style political craziness, take a look.
Then it comes in handy that I live in the 3rd district ;-)