region plans to announce independence from spain colors freedom or has three more days to make the decision people are protesting in barcelona after a spanish judge jailed the leaders of two pro independence groups more than three hundred people have not died off to some of his worst suicide attack in history hundreds more injured in the two in the twin bomb explosions on saturday forty of the most severely wounded have been flown to turkey for treatment israeli government is approved the building of new illegal jewish settlement units in hebron in the occupied west bank thirty one units have been given the green light these settlements are illegal under international law this is the first time the government has given official approval for construction in the city in fifteen is a car bomb and killed an investigative journalist who had been leading the fight against corruption definitely. wrote a blog on alleged bribery and fraud between politicians and businessmen some of the accusations involve the prime minister joseph muscat who has denounced the killing

three people have been killed after storm ophelia hit island three hundred sixty thousand properties are now without power as of the headlines the news continues on al-jazeera after inside story. sébastien kurtz declares victory in austria as national election which will feels a swing to the right so where will the so-called one that could take austria what this is drawing is named for europe this is inside story.

hello welcome to the show i'm sam is a than now the results from austria as national election are in and it looks like sebastian kurtz is poised to become the world's youngest head of government declared victory after his conservative people's party won more than thirty one percent of the vote it wasn't enough for a simple majority to form a coalition government that is expected to be a union between his party and the second far right freedom party during the campaign kurds adopted a tough stance against refugees and immigration in his victory speech talked about his mandate. and. i have a big request for you used today to celebrate you all have through hard work and dedication at the same time i need to tell you that to more to work starts we did

not just run to win the elections we did so to bring austria back to the top we ran in this election to achieve real change. as we mentioned earlier kurds will need to form that coalition but those talks could prove difficult for the wonder kid the head of the far right freedom party accuse kurt of co-opting his message during the campaign. months here. and now we'll see if they really mean it honestly or seriously if they are even willing to have honestly go she is with us or not and i'm telling you you can rely on one thing we are going to stay true to ourselves your friends we are going to stay true to the austrian people. let's bring our guests into the show we have in lancaster in the united kingdom allison fiddler professor of german and austrian studies she's also the author of an upcoming book the art of resisting cultural protest against the austrian far right and on skype from london matthew goodwin seen the a visiting fellow at chatham house is europe program good to have you with us let's

start with alice and then how did a country which was one of the most welcoming to refugees a couple of years ago vs so much to the right so quickly. whether it's been quite so quick is cost debatable it's true of course austria did welcome in. large numbers of refugees about the third i think placed in europe in terms of per capita the number of refugees coming through. and you know have been i think very welcoming towards asylum seekers i think this isn't something that has just happened however there is a an undercurrent you can look back to i'm sure we'll be talking about this more but back to the millennial elections one thousand nine hundred thousand when your kaiser's freedom party came into coalition with the austrian people's government

and back then too there were there was a lot of mileage made of if you like anti immigrant rhetoric. well things have changed a bit since then haven't they matthew according to the australian government's two thousand and seventeen integration report which i read up immigration to austria dropped dramatically last year with a fall in the silent applications of more than fifty percent why was there so much focus during the election campaign then on immigration well i think. the main concern among austrians really followed the eruption of the refugee crisis in twenty fifteen and we saw a very concerted attempt at the center right leader sebastian kurtz to earth back to italy. targets. by talking very tough on that refugee issue if you just think about some of the policies so that's how it

advocated but i don't think you know the pills apparently to more than just the far right voters right looks like he's captured people who may not have previously aligned themselves with the far right. well he's held up the center right vote the austrian people's party votes he will also attracted some nonvoters but austria instinctively is quite a conservative country we know that austrians considered the european union's handling of the refugee crisis to be one of its greatest failures which we discovered in a survey at chatham house but coats for example talks of slashing benefits from my currency move the army on to the southern border to patrol the borders with police he talked about closing islamic schools for children. cursing his party oversaw. the. need that anybody can be online for wearing.

make space covering. clothing in public and all of this was part of an attempt to really occupy that radical right space so i think kurtz came into this election with a very clear strategy including it's paid off he has come in with a very clear strategy in a sense alison has he has stolen some of the ground from the people's from the freedom party absolutely and of course he's been rebuked for so doing by the leader of the freedom party has caused that after. campaign posters call him the for a dent you know the man we thought about these things beforehand so the author has that's quite. openly a keen sed cook the cooks of having taken some of his policies on. of course i suppose you know if we get a coalition between these two parties then to some extent. cooke's will have done

just that has worked for him but it doesn't look like that and i think his feel and been a bit aggrieved that you know their their political. if you like their campaigning points are being taken from them and championed by one of the established parties however better the freedom party may be about what the people's party leader has been saying and doing matthew will agree there is no going back this is a country that has shifted towards the right even if by some miracle they work out a coalition with the social democrats rather than the freedom party. austria like many of the european states has moved decisively to the right that's without question there are some outliers macron in france but of course in the first round the story before you send anti e.u. candidates germany corgan in britain perhaps as some better than some expected but

the general story you are as reflected in austria is on the continent that is moving to the right and crucially let's look not lose sight of one important development you know really for the first time in years the center left in austria house has appeared to at least agree to discuss with the radical right freedom party the possibility of forming an alliance and it will act like it's not likely to happen simply crossing that well line to even discuss that possibility with the rapid co-write i think is an important moment in post-war european politics and it's something definitely to be looked at in terms of where the continent is going as well as austria allison when we try and look ahead it's important to remember of course curt's has been in power he's held positions as the foreign minister minister of integration austria does have an integration law which for the first time included legal standards for what constitutes integration and

a legally binding integration declaration which applicants had to sign and so on what sort of impact has that had on the whole integration and immigration situation in austria. i don't know about these new laws but if you look at citizenship tests in austria they've been quite clear about you know what they wish from people becoming austrian whether they're from the middle east or elsewhere but as has been referred to them it's sort of coming at a time when with the full facial veil ban it's not just the burka clamping down on anybody with you know fancy dress costumes on that mask their face is part of a general if you like package of things that are looking to be more anti. anti

foreigners. yes we'll see you know who ends up being in the coalition as matthew just pointed out it's unlikely that the social democrats will do so and and the unthinkable has happened that they haven't ruled it out. ninety nine two thousand the austrian people's party circles his party ruled out a coalition with the freedom party but it then renee gone that and and did actually form a coalition so. if you break it down alison i mean to hear the breaking down for us what does that mean in terms of the sort of direction or policies we can expect from austria going forward allison are we going to see it austria that's more insular closed less enthusiastic about the you. know what is the ultimate leamy. well of course austria takes on the presidency in the second half of two thousand and eighteen so it'll get fairly critical then. last year when we had

a protracted attempt to elect austrian president we saw. a kind of rallying of if you if you like really pro you know sentiment in that the the winner of that contest closely fought though it was alexander funded baron campaigned on a platform of looking after austrians reputation and that came really as as a reaction to what was going on in britain with breck's it because austria could see that coming out of the e.u. wasn't a great idea. whether that's going to change remains to be seen last year who for that that's the ally of course of plasters in the freedom party his right hand man. he had initially said that he made anti e.u. noises but then said that the people must decide to that would go to

a referendum. maybe that's what that's the way things will go perhaps they will have a referendum in austria to. be seen but look at things from the outside in as well matthew how do you think those euro diplomats in brussels are going to be watching viewing what's happened in vienna. i suspect that that plate this is the other evidence of the strength of oculus in austria i think they'll look at the freedom of the vote with the party attracting more than one in full voters as being the same kind of challenge so the european union project has marine le pen a problem with this in the netherlands but i think they'll also view this perhaps is as likely to turn up the volume all not a position to how the e.u. has managed the refugee crisis i suspect hungary in poland and other states in central and eastern europe will probably be celebrating the result because of its

position on the refugee issue i think they'll be feeling as though they've got one will sit in that corner trying to push back against how the e.u. has managed that crisis trying to toughen up the x. all of the n.g.o.s. patrolling the met coming up with a more conservative response if you like on that issue so i think the e.u. will be a lot of what we don't see how it is an imposition of those diplomatic sanctions that we saw in two thousand when the european union really i think. many actually over reacted in its response that the freedom party joining the coalition then. commissioned a report to ensure that human rights to being up here no i don't think we'll see anything like that this time around which again shows us how your strategy i'm glad that you mentioned that matthew allison the freedom party as both of you now mentioned you know they have been in a coalition government before the early two thousands. why is there

a feeling this time that the country is really on the verge of this is different. well i mean diversity go back to the issue of you know whether there will be international conservation mattie's obviously right on this that it's unthinkable i think that they. will now muscle in and start to slap down austria possibly in part because in so many of the member states there are equivalent successes for the far right so everybody's busy looking at their own getting their own house in order or not so i think it's unlikely that. austria will be deemed to be you know have to be brought back into line what's changed you know obviously we've got the effects of the refugee crisis it it's

all i don't know what else has changed if you asked and they've been polls suggesting that you know forty five percent of austrians think that they're less well off economically and they need somebody to sort this out so the economic agenda lower taxes this is of course another promise of courts you know are also on the menu it's not just a immigration backlash. i can't really put a finger on you know what might have changed in society what i feel sure will happen though perhaps to a lesser lesser extent that it did last time is that there will be domestic protest there has already been impromptu protests yesterday on the streets in vienna already there are petitions circulating to try to stop a coalition between the the black and the blue or between the turquoise and the blue as we must say. because of change the party colors as well as

a few other things or i'm glad you mentioned the protests let's bring into the show at this point joining us from vienna alexis new birdie's host of radio africa t.v. good to have you with us we're talking about perhaps the backlash within austria do you see much of an attempt to block coalition forming. we think here in new vienna. everything is still being open. to depend on the negotiation of the building of the government because you cannot see or of course that actions are complicated. there are some difficulties about the coalition of course. when to approve and block they make a coalition they have their very big. fired according to the topics because all of them that are said the group is saying there is. the black one is their own topics they go out of their own topics at this minute they make up

a coalition with them they will not be able to bring them there'd topics in the in the program of government so the red one also did decide in the beginning to say they were not populated with people who are setting the head against. open union it is here now open it is that big suspense because not with the north what would happen there's a big suspense no one knows what happens matthew mentioned then the push back from the e.u. in the early two thousand against the last government when the freedom party played a role we don't expect that do expect any formal pushback from the e.u. atoll. i think it's unlikely to see a big mobilization against austria largely because the e.u. to be blunt has bigger fish to fry it's a constant of the us really still trying to encourage that very fragile economic

growth to come through a bit more fully and also you know to try and get to grips with some of those sentiments that we just heard about but much of southern europe in particular is really not feeling much of the economic pick up over the last year and a half and we need to throw in a lingering refugee crisis and perhaps that negotiations the election it simply isn't going to impose itself on the agenda in the same way that the austrian politics did you know years it maybe it also is one of the reasons i think there are also the fact that the political landscape in europe has changed compared to the two thousand so i mean the early two thousand. the rise of the fall right in other places has been a notable fact while i was. saying also you know apart from that swim to the right i would say what's changed has been a collapse of support for the last in two thousand and thirteen fifteen governments in the e.u. had a center left parties in the this year currently only six of the twenty eight

governments in the european union have left way parties in them and most of those are what we would call periphery states like molds or imports ugle so i think when you look at the general direction of europe the center left has been struggling under center right and the populist right in general terms of be doing quite well in austria. although there are ideological differences alison is one way of looking at what's been happening across europe whether it's you know kurds in austria the rise of micron in france the brig's it. vote could we draw a common sort of anti establishment is a line through all of this. you know it's tempting to do so but i think it's a bit ironic really because it's only in the case of austria i mean this is still establishment this is a the austrian people's party which is formed grand coalitions on and off it's

part of the old system it's just. this whole thing is being different from the old boy's garbage least that's how he seems to have sold himself. exactly but it is the we will find out but no just changing your party coat color and dumping yourself a movement instead of a party isn't isn't really enough to. to prove that this is something new. you know our march is a new party this isn't in austria it's it's an old party that's giving itself a make over and you can see this in other countries too of course. not least in our own but is he really something new he's a he's a young. career politician who's been in politics since he was twenty four going thirty one now and he's certainly garnered a lot of support for his youth and vitality and energy and and i think actually to

some extent to his ability to stay carm in you know lots of t.v. jewels that are being played out over the last months austria's really gone to town on sort of building up a drama a narrative a fight if you like they've been called jewels on the television to sort of make them out to be if you like a political fight and courts is kind of crossing credibly well in those interesting you mention the other thing though about the this the jewels if i could if i could bring alexis into that because of course you work in television today are we heading towards an austrian that's more politically polarized with people dueling over issues. the general opinion here. is that. grant people or grant support the asians have been the most. the most big issue in all of these companies and and we see that door owsley and they are moving

in that they direction gratian and. and put in a policy and that's the problem that you have here because. people began to prepare themselves what would happen if the government brough and and and black come on the power but we think that based on the as a journalist something about you know to be easy even if. governments come under on the power between the coalition. and block i don't think that they will go on using the same birthday knowledge and they are using the cup final important point for matthew you know in britain voted for braggs a lot of leaders were speaking about now we're going to accelerate european integration now those reluctant brits are finally out the club that if that changed now that given what's happened in austria given the rise of the far right in france

and germany to. well i think at the beginning of the year the election of macron and then the defeat. bill is in another looms really gate your renewed sense of confidence and it doubled down on that narrative of we're out just get on with integration let's get on with deepening the european project it's not necessarily widening the european project but i think over the last months you know we just had to begin to actions germany and austria both of which in their own way he's given us clear evidence that there is a section within european society there is a large number of points there's who don't feel or so the current economic settlement and the political settlement are working all the and i think this is just a reminder for the e.u. that it can't really just continue it as normal and carry on with business as normal it's going to have to start to think about why around one in four voters in

austria or one in eighty in germany are opening book parties that are clearly quite populist anti immigration and quite hostile to the e.u. . it's a lot for them to figure out let's wish them well with that one where out of time on this show so it's time to thank our guests alexis newberg allison fiddler and matthew goodwin and the hank you two for watching you can see the show again any time by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com for further discussion head over to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story can also join the conversation on twitter our handle there is at a.j. inside story from me sam is a dad and whole thing here for now it's providing. training

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