More than only Schadenfreude?

Everyone (I know) seems mighty pleased about the fact that Austrian FPÖ’s leader Strache was forced to resign, after a secret video showing his alleged entanglement in a serious corruption scandal, came to the light.

I do not share this feeling of satisfaction, beyond my natural shadenfreude, at the fall of a member of the mighty: let many others fall in his footsteps.

The real issue with Austria is not that one politician was found out to be corrupt. The real problem are the right-wing tendencies of its population – a phenomenon that can best be explained by Austria’s historical refusal to accept responsibility for its fascist and Nazi past. They always saw themselves as victims of Nazi Germany instead of accepting the truth, which is that they were part of the Nazi machine in ideology, in action and in fervour. As a result, there is a lot of the same still to be found in that country. FPÖ had 26% of the popular vote in the last general election and was evidently a natural bed-fellow of the country’s conservative party, Sebastian Kurz’s ÖVP (31%).

Now, the Chancellor has called for a snap election. Will we find that Austrians are longer attracted by racism, Islamophobia and populist rhetoric? I doubt that. There is, as yet, nothing to be happy about. Much work still needs doing.