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schneefinkThis is an unpleasant topic, but unfortunately not one I can avoid. Have a short list of some things currently going wrong in Austrian politics. (I don't think "most things" is an exaggeration just because it could theoretically be even worse. Okay, some of that is probably media bias.)
In no particular order:
Who can find the lost billions?
A detective story full of incompetent people and blame-shifting. Somehow it came out that the federal state Salzburg has been doing illegal finance deals for years. Nobody knows yet how much money it's about (highest I've heard is 7 billion €). At first they said it was only one woman's doing, later they had to admit that more people were informed, including politicians so it got even messier, and there are several millions that nobody has any idea where they are. They don't even know if they actually lost any money or "just" mislaid it.
What do we learn from that: To no-one's surprise, finances are messy, particularly when they come into contact with politics. We already had that in Kärnten, but apparently they didn't learn.
A funny aspect: The story took a few days to hit the media, a few days after the state audit board gave their report - only nobody had actually given them any relevant information.
What do you mean, corruption is illegal?
Ernst Strasser was convicted, to four years! Okay, I lied, this one thing is positive. He's a (former) member of the European parliament who was filmed offering to be bribed by British journalists. He's going to appeal, but it's a step in the right direction. He'd be the first high-ranking politician to go to prison instead of paying a fine since 1969.
A funny aspect: His "I wanted to expose a conspiracy!" defense is sort of hilarious.
Don't actually shoot them (we think)
This election poster is terrible. A federal state election does not have anything to do with Iwo Jima, and other parties' candidates in crosshairs - haven't we just seen where that leads with Gabrielle Giffords? Especially considering this party (right-wing, incompetent, corrupt, etc.), but even if it were any other this is just horrible.
A funny aspect: None that I can see.
We don't need no information
In less than a week there's a nation-wide poll about whether or not we should keep general conscription or switch to a standing army. Not only is this clearly a way for the politicians to not take responsibility for finding a good solution, and any way this ends I am very pessimistic that the necessary reforms will be made, but the lack of information for the people even a week before the poll is terrible. This is not how direct democracy can work! I'm not even 100% sure yet what I will vote for because there is hardly any information about what they actually want to do, and the plans they have aren't very credible at all. Principles are good and all that, but in real politics you actually need to think about the practicalities.
A funny aspect: The only funny thing about how this debate time and time again gets reduced to "party A and party B" instead of their actual models is how both of them keep forgetting their own parties' positions on the topic in the past.
Let's go buy a party
An Austro-Canadian billionaire, Stronach, decides to buy himself a political party, so he does. It's very easy. His "team" is full of incompetent people who knew they could never advance anywhere in their old party, he has no political program, many of his opinions are ridiculous, but he has to be taken "seriously" because he bought himself enough members of parliament to get state funding. In some polls he has as many votes as the Green party. Why.
A funny aspect: His party's motto is "truth, transparency, fairness," in German "Wahrheit, Transparenz, Fairness," or WTF for short.
And as for our media, I'm not sure if it's actually getting worse or if I just notice it more. Just a hint, if France is sending planes into Mali your main headline should probably not be "fear of terrorism in France."
Because these are all recent and still developing topics there are no good up-to-date overview articles that I could find.
The depressing thing is that I still think we have it relatively good here in comparison to other countries.
In no particular order:
Who can find the lost billions?
A detective story full of incompetent people and blame-shifting. Somehow it came out that the federal state Salzburg has been doing illegal finance deals for years. Nobody knows yet how much money it's about (highest I've heard is 7 billion €). At first they said it was only one woman's doing, later they had to admit that more people were informed, including politicians so it got even messier, and there are several millions that nobody has any idea where they are. They don't even know if they actually lost any money or "just" mislaid it.
What do we learn from that: To no-one's surprise, finances are messy, particularly when they come into contact with politics. We already had that in Kärnten, but apparently they didn't learn.
A funny aspect: The story took a few days to hit the media, a few days after the state audit board gave their report - only nobody had actually given them any relevant information.
What do you mean, corruption is illegal?
Ernst Strasser was convicted, to four years! Okay, I lied, this one thing is positive. He's a (former) member of the European parliament who was filmed offering to be bribed by British journalists. He's going to appeal, but it's a step in the right direction. He'd be the first high-ranking politician to go to prison instead of paying a fine since 1969.
A funny aspect: His "I wanted to expose a conspiracy!" defense is sort of hilarious.
Don't actually shoot them (we think)
This election poster is terrible. A federal state election does not have anything to do with Iwo Jima, and other parties' candidates in crosshairs - haven't we just seen where that leads with Gabrielle Giffords? Especially considering this party (right-wing, incompetent, corrupt, etc.), but even if it were any other this is just horrible.
A funny aspect: None that I can see.
We don't need no information
In less than a week there's a nation-wide poll about whether or not we should keep general conscription or switch to a standing army. Not only is this clearly a way for the politicians to not take responsibility for finding a good solution, and any way this ends I am very pessimistic that the necessary reforms will be made, but the lack of information for the people even a week before the poll is terrible. This is not how direct democracy can work! I'm not even 100% sure yet what I will vote for because there is hardly any information about what they actually want to do, and the plans they have aren't very credible at all. Principles are good and all that, but in real politics you actually need to think about the practicalities.
A funny aspect: The only funny thing about how this debate time and time again gets reduced to "party A and party B" instead of their actual models is how both of them keep forgetting their own parties' positions on the topic in the past.
Let's go buy a party
An Austro-Canadian billionaire, Stronach, decides to buy himself a political party, so he does. It's very easy. His "team" is full of incompetent people who knew they could never advance anywhere in their old party, he has no political program, many of his opinions are ridiculous, but he has to be taken "seriously" because he bought himself enough members of parliament to get state funding. In some polls he has as many votes as the Green party. Why.
A funny aspect: His party's motto is "truth, transparency, fairness," in German "Wahrheit, Transparenz, Fairness," or WTF for short.
And as for our media, I'm not sure if it's actually getting worse or if I just notice it more. Just a hint, if France is sending planes into Mali your main headline should probably not be "fear of terrorism in France."
Because these are all recent and still developing topics there are no good up-to-date overview articles that I could find.
The depressing thing is that I still think we have it relatively good here in comparison to other countries.
