Up to 50 people blocked a street and demanded a right to stay for those who were being deported despite convictions for rape, robbery, and other serious crimes. Refugee workers in Vienna tried to prevent the deportation of several rejected asylum seekers to Afghanistan, including those convicted of rape and other serious crimes earlier this…
Global Look Press / Z6869 Reinhard Kaufhold An interview with an ex-MP suggesting that Austrian-born girls wear headscarves to hide the fact they aren’t Muslims and to prevent assaults from migrants on the streets of Vienna has triggered a storm on social media. Marcus Franz, a doctor and former MP from the conservative Austrian People’s Party,…
This weekend’s regional election in Germany will provide further proof of a fragmenting political landscape, writes Slawomir Sierakowski. The German Social Democrats’ (SPD) existential crisis can no longer be treated as a typical party crisis. The party captured a mere 9.7% of the vote in regional elections in Bavaria this month, and it is trailing the…
After the victory of Sebastian Kurz of Austrian People’s Party in legislative elections on October 15, German Chancellor Angela Merkel of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has to prepare for a changed dynamic in neighborly relations. Although the two parties belong to the same European Union party, Kurz, the 31-year-old minister for foreign affairs, Chancellor-designate of…
The far-right Freedom Party—an ally of Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France and one of the emboldened cluster of populist right-wing parties making big gains across the Continent—took as much as 26 percent of the vote in Austria’s elections this weekend. The result could see the Freedom Party enter into a coalition with the…