The far right is strong in Austria’s parliamentary elections on Sunday. An interesting side plot of the election is the possible breakthrough of the small Beer Party.
– We will take our position to the next level, namely to the parliament, threatens the leader of the Austrian Beer Party (BIER Party) Dominik Wlazny in the bulletin.
Austrians will vote next Sunday in parliamentary elections, where the far-right FPÖ party can become the largest party for the first time.
In addition to the FPÖ, the outcome is tense in the Beer Party, which was originally founded with a satirical mind.
Even last year, the party’s poll results were nothing to laugh at: the party got eight percent approval ratings at best.
In the current year, however, the Beer Party’s popularity has declined: in the latest measurements, it received only four percent of support, Austria’s leading the newspaper Der Standard reports. Getting a seat in the country’s 183-seat lower house of parliament, the National Council, is therefore going to be tough.
Founded in 2015, Olutpuolue pursues a liberal, left-leaning policy with humor.
In its early years, the party told that it is a “bureaucratic movement” where “power comes from beer”. The party supported “freedom of opinion and freedom of choice of beer”. According to the party, the state should strive to support people who “are less talented at drinking beer”.
The party favored multiculturalism, because “diverse brewing culture” and “foreign imported beers enrich culture”.
However, the beer party has had to become serious with its popularity. In Sunday’s elections, the party promotes an open society that supports a free market economy, social justice and environmental protection.
However, the party opposes, for example, the reduction of weekly working hours and the introduction of inheritance tax.
Even the chairman Wlaznyka, known as a punk musician, no longer appears as casually as in the early years. Wlazny is avoided the reporters’ questions about the party’s line, and his leadership style has been criticized in the media as autocratic.
The extreme right is expected to win
Even if the Beer Party gets a parliamentary seat, the election victory will almost certainly go to one of the country’s big right-wing parties.
In the upcoming parliamentary elections, the far-right FPÖ, the center-right ÖVP and the social democratic SPÖ are once again in the lead.
According to the latest poll results, the strongest is the FPÖ, whose popularity is starting to recover after its collapse in the so-called Ibiza scandal of 2019.
Source: Reuters