I am fascinated by politics. I wouldn't want to do it and honestly don't understand the people that do but watching politicians and how people react to them is one of my passions (along with music and cake). So, you can imagine my excitement when I arrived in the land of music and cake (Vienna) to find they were in the middle of an election.
It appeared that the Viennese (who still have a passion for lederhosen) were in a whirl and about to elect an ayrian president from the Freedom party whose political beliefs are on the far right. Every country seems to have one. Norbert Hofer is Austria's Farage or Trump: a fresh faced, blue eyed man whose posters looked like an advert for the Hitler youth (a thought that occurred to me before I spotted the graffiti moustaches)
Austria's President is mostly a ceremonial role with few powers but this candidate had promised to disband parliament if they didn't do something about immigration. This surprised me because Vienna seemed such a nice safe city. People happily gave money to the few people that were sitting on street corners and shops are able to have a display cabinet full of knives outside all night, without fear of inciting violence.
We even saw someone stop next to a woman with a dog, headscarf and sign that said, "Hunger", sit down next to her and empty Tupperware cartons of hot food onto a paper plate. When the woman had eaten she picked up her sign and belongings and went for a nice walk with her dog.
This election was interesting to me, not only because of the right wing phenomenon that is sweeping the world but also because of the actual election system. This was a second vote, which is usual in Austria. The first vote is for all the parties that are standing. If one candidate gets more than 50% of the vote then they are the winner. If not then the second vote is between the top two parties. This seems to be a much better system. It would stop people saying that their vote doesn't count. Austria used to have compulsory voting, of which, surprisingly (as a normally liberal person) I am in favour. I'm not sure when they stopped making people vote but they still managed a 78% turnout (uk: usually around 60%).
Norbert had won over 30% of the vote in the initial round and everyone had expected him to win the second round. He was up against a Green Party candidate, Van Der Bellen, who has a nice white bushy moustache (not the black toothbrush version drawn on the poster) and a nice looking dog.
The election closed at 5pm and they were expecting the results to be announced soon after. We walked past reporters and their man with an i-pad (BBC), practising their smiles and serious faces, and larger crews with proper cameras and fluffy things on sticks pointed at men in suited top halves and more casual below the camera wear, and we could almost taste the anticipation and excitement.
We chose a cafe in the Hofburg Palace to sit and watch. The LSH tried to ask about the election but the waiter just waved towards the corner of the building and mumbled something about the President living in, "that part there." Having missed the memo about not talking to the famously grumpy waiters, he persisted and even tried talking in German. It turns out that the waiter hadn't voted, didn't care, wasn't even Austrian and wasn't a "politicky person."
The results came in. Or rather, they didn't come in because they were 50:50. Not exactly but it became clear that the postal votes could change the whole situation. The reporters did their piece to camera and packed up, resigned to coming back tomorrow morning for more of the same. At that point Hofer had 51.9% of the vote.
The next day they were back and by late afternoon were beginning to look more than a bit fed up. Eventually, Hofer conceded and Van der Bellen had won with 50.35% of the vote. People in Vienna seemed happy.
"I would ask for a recount, if I were him, That can't be statistically significant," said the LSH sounding like my son.
We both expect that this isn't the end; that there is an appetite for very right wing politics, even in lovely safe and happy places like Austria. Even the cake and music can't stop the shift to the right.
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