Austria
Austria: 100 days of the grand coalition government
Militarization and social redistribution of wealth continue
By Dieter Blumenfeld and Markus Salzmann, April 24, 2007
The grand coalition government in Vienna comprising the Austrian Social Democrats (SPÖ) and Austrian Peoples Party (ÖVP) has been in office for 100 days. At the beginning of January, the SPÖ- ÖVP ...
Grand coalition government formed in Austria
By Markus Salzmann, January 20, 2007
Three months after the Austrian parliamentary elections in October 2006, a new government has been sworn in. While Social Democrat Alfred Gusenbauer has replaced Wolfgang Schüssel of the conservative...
Austria: Massive losses for the governing People’s Party
By Marcus Salzmann, October 13, 2006
The conservative Austrian People’s Party (APP), led by Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, suffered its biggest ever losses in national parliamentary elections held last Sunday. It received just 34.2...
Conservative coalition faces widespread unpopularity
Outcome uncertain on eve of Austrian elections
By Markus Salzmann, September 29, 2006
According to recent opinion polls, the outcome of the Austrian National Council elections due to be held October 1 is entirely unpredictable. The current conservative government consisting of a coalit...
The Bawag affair and the decay of the Austrian trade unions
By Markus Salzmann, June 12, 2006
A scandal involving the trade union-owned Labour and Economics Bank (Bawag) has revealed the true extent of the rottenness of the Austrian trade union movement. The Austrian trade union federation (OE...
Austrian state elections: a clear rebuff of government attacks on social welfare
By Markus Salzmann, October 24, 2005
Regional elections in the Austrian states of Styria and Burgenland on October 2 and 9 resulted in a dramatic loss of support for the conservative and extreme-right parties ruling in Vienna—the A...
Austria: behind the split in the Freedom Party
By Markus Salzmann and Ulrich Rippert, April 20, 2005
Sharp conflicts within the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FP) have ended in an open split. On April 4, former FP chairman and Carinthian state leader Jörg Haider appeared before the press in Vien...
Austria: Social democrats form coalition in Carinthia with Haider
By Markus Salzmann and Ulrich Rippert, March 23, 2004
Just one week after state elections in Carinthia, the southernmost state in Austria, the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) has agreed to form a governing coalition with the extreme-right Freedom Party (F...
Following recent local elections
Conservatives and Greens form coalition government in Upper Austria
By Markus Salzmann, November 19, 2003
Only weeks after regional elections in Upper Austria, the conservative Austrian Peoples Party (ÖVP) and the Green Party have agreed to form a local coalition government. This decision will accelerate...
State elections in Upper Austria and Tyrol
Austrian voters reject government’s attacks on welfare state
By Markus Salzmann, October 25, 2003
The regional elections in Upper Austria and Tyrol on September 28 were not only another disaster for the right-wing Liberal Party (FP), but also made apparent the widespread rejection of the anti-soci...
Austrian government imposes cuts in pensions
Right-wing regime ignores mass protests
By Markus Salzmann, June 26, 2003
In defiance of the largest strike and protest movement in 50 years, the right-wing government of Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel pushed massive cuts in the pension system through the Austrian parliament...
Austria’s biggest strike in 50 years
By Markus Salzmann, May 12, 2003
On May 5, plans by Vienna’s right-wing conservative government to implement drastic cuts in the pension system resulted in the first major political strike in Austria in over 50 years. About hal...
