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Court overturns Austria presidential poll

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Violet_0

Banned
Y-yeah, just fine... just massive blows to welfare, healthcare and education. Just the biggest financial crisis in the entire history of the republic that was pretty much directly caused by the far right.

Please don't tell me you're making a reference to the Anschluss. Please.

I think that post is referring to the Schüssel, Haider, Hypo era. I'm pretty sure they're also being sarcastic
 

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
If there is no doubt about the correctness of the result though, they should just have instated consequences for the decision makers of the breaking of the regularities instead. Having a whole re-election is costly (independent of the risk that a nationalist scumbag may become president).

That would only give credit to Strache's "We vs the establishment" rethoric the FPÖ keeps using though.
 

Kater

Banned
mM3suqd.gif


...shit.

I just heard. I was so glad that it was over, and now to get back into the madness... I hope people's minds changed a bit, with the immigration talks having cooled down and other things being focused on.
 

Fliesen

Member
Some Germans may want that, but let's just wait until our Nazis from the AfD also enter the parliament and become third or second strongest party.

If there is no doubt about the correctness of the result though, they should just have instated consequences for the decision makers of the breaking of the regularities instead. Having a whole re-election is costly (independent of the risk that a nationalist scumbag may become president).
No price too high to prevent the population (somewhat rightfully) losing trust in the way our elections work.
There were too many irregularities uncovered for this to end without any consequences on the result.

The election will be repeated.
Unless the voter turnout is lower this time around, the result would actually be a more legitimate one than the one we currently have.
Again, let's not let "being happy about the result we had" cloud or bias our judgement about what has to happen when our elections are being handled incorrectly.
 
I think it'll be a clear victory for VdB.

Politics are so momentary. Just like the whole refugee chaos helped Hofer the last time, Brexit and all that shit the is currently going down in England will make people think twice to vote for right wing.

Watch and see.
 

Green Yoshi

Member
Nationalism in Europe. What could possibly go wrong? ;-)

It's quite likely that Hofer will win this time. The mastermind of the Istanbul attacks got asylum in Austria many years ago, the EU is in bad shape after the Brexit and free trade agreements as CETA worry many citizens.
 

Fliesen

Member
I think it'll be a clear victory for VdB.

Politics are so momentary. Just like the whole refugee chaos helped Hofer the last time, Brexit and all that shit the is currently going down in England will make people think twice to vote for right wing.

Watch and see.

aye, that's what i'm hoping for as well.
 

Fliesen

Member
The "freedom party"? I cant even.

"Freiheitliche Partei" is a bit weird to translate.

freedom party would be a mistranslation - that would be "Freiheitspartei"

"freiheitlich" (the adjective) would better translate into liberal, but then, that would be kind of a misnomer, nowadays.

A right-wing candidate lost and now gets a do-over, so yeah, that's bad.

but if he wins the do-over, he wins the do-over. He doesn't go into this election with an unfair advantage. If more than 50% of people vote for him, and we can - this time around - safely assume that the election was handled accurately and according to election laws, he's the legitimate winner.

A do-over doesn't change the fact that the voters decide about who becomes Austria's next president.
 
"Freiheitliche Partei" is a bit weird to translate.

freedom party would be a mistranslation - that would be "Freiheitspartei"

"freiheitlich" (the adjective) would better translate into liberal, but then, that would be kind of a misnomer, nowadays.



but if he wins the do-over, he wins the do-over. He doesn't go into this election with an unfair advantage. If more than 50% of people vote for him, and we can - this time around - safely assume that the election was handled accurately and according to election laws, he's the legitimate winner.

A do-over doesn't change the fact that the voters decide about who becomes Austria's next president.

Right-wing being in power is horrible no matter what. That's the point. Hopefully the voters continue to choose wisely.
 

Fliesen

Member
If Van der Bellen wins again, I have no doubt the FPÖ is going to contest the results again.

no way in hell. That'd be ridiculous. There's actually some / many who actually disagreed with them contesting it the first time around. People hate it when parties waste 'tax payer money'.

The FPÖ always has a multiple-year game plan. If they were to contest again, even more people might be pissed off at them, and no amount of "having an FPÖ president" is worth fucking up the approval ratings for the next general elections.

President Hofer < Chancelor Strache.
 

Iokis

Member
I moved to Vienna from the UK two years ago cos I knew one day the UK would do something stupid regarding the EU (didn't think this soon) and felt like I dodged a bullet last week, not long after sweating through the Austrian presidential election with the rest of the non-far right population.

And now, well... Fuck. Here we go again, with a pretty good probability that Hofer clinches it this time. As mentioned, the presidency is largely ceremonial, but it would offer Hofer the power to dissolve parliament. While thankfully relatively unlikely, there could be a chain of events leading to FPÖ in government and suddenly Öxit could be on the cards...

I'd move to Italy (my girlfriend is Italian) but I'm afraid I might actually be an unwitting vessel of destruction and doing so would cause Lega Nord to sweep to power or something ._.
 
President Hofer < Chancelor Strache.

While a Chancellor Strache might be capable of dealing more damage overall, the powers of a President Hofer should not be underestimated, as Hofer in the presidential chair could and most likely would enable an FPÖ minority government, which would be the worst case scenario. The only positive in this case would be that the likelihood of the FPÖ completely fucking everything up and showing that they are not the solution, but at that moment, it'd be already too late, and an autocratic push would've already happened... not to mention that within the next 10 years, the average voter would've already forgotten anyway. Just look at the Schüssel-Haider administration. Nobody seems to remember they fucked so much shit up.

A president Van der Bellen, at the very least, would completely prohibit that scenario from ever happening; even if we were to get a chancellor Strache, it would at least be in a coalition, thus softened up a bit.
 

El Topo

Member
Can't say I'm surprised. It was so narrow that I think it is for the best, even if I do not like Strache at all.
 

Dingens

Member
That would only give credit to Strache's "We vs the establishment" rethoric the FPÖ keeps using though.

it's a lose-lose situation no matter what. That's the problem with right wing rhetoric.
If they'd have just ignored the results and made vdb president anyway, people would feel cheated, rightfully so to a certain extend. so in a way this would be a good thing as it would strengthen the democratic system.
BUT
as we are dealing with a bunch of bauernfänger here, this can and will be used the other way around as in "see! those up there tried to cheat you and we, the good guys, fought for you to make your vote count!".
they have been trying to undermine democratic legitimacy for years if not decades. This is just another piece to their puzzle - and all the other parties are to stupid to react properly.
 

CTLance

Member
War zu erwarten. Verflixtnochmal.

Oh well. Don't fuck this up, Austria. Please.

Think of the Brexit. Protest voting can backfire most painfully and absurdly.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
No price too high to prevent the population (somewhat rightfully) losing trust in the way our elections work.
There were too many irregularities uncovered for this to end without any consequences on the result.

The election will be repeated.
Unless the voter turnout is lower this time around, the result would actually be a more legitimate one than the one we currently have.
Again, let's not let "being happy about the result we had" cloud or bias our judgement about what has to happen when our elections are being handled incorrectly.

Definitely agreed if there was anything wrong with the numbers, but if the only thing that was wrong were formalities with couting the votes or the timing of it, it is a waste of money. It does not have to do with being happy with the result, I'd be saying the same thing if the Nazi had won. Reelection over some votes being counted to early is a waste of money, because the results are not changed by the timing of counting the votes, as long as no results are being published while voting is still going on.
 
Think of the Brexit. Protest voting can backfire most painfully and absurdly.

It will be interesting to see how much of a post-Brexit shadow creeps over this election. Will the UK (or rather, Britain and Wales) voting to bounce from the EU strengthen Eurosceptic and nationalist rhetoric, encouraging a better turnout; or will the chaos and financial hits the Sterling has taken post-referendum temper attitudes or perhaps encourage those who didn't vote last time to come out and vote in favor of Van der Bellen?
 
D

Deleted member 57681

Unconfirmed Member
I think it'll be a clear victory for VdB.

Politics are so momentary. Just like the whole refugee chaos helped Hofer the last time, Brexit and all that shit the is currently going down in England will make people think twice to vote for right wing.

Watch and see.
We are not smart people.
 

Zatoth

Member
Oh. Seems that Austria is the first country in Western Europe that has to redo an election. That's at least something...
 
Out of curiosity. What would happen if VdB says he is not interested in running again? (will not happen) Would take make Hofer president or would we have to redo the first one?

Missed this.
No, this would not be the case. If one of the candidates voluntarily rescinds from the election, then only the remaining candidate would go into the voting. However in that case, the population would vote whether to accept the remaining candidate or not (so if VdB rescinded, it would be a vote of "Do you want Hofer as president? Yes/No").
In the case that No would win, the entire election would have to be done again, allowing for multiple candidates once more.

In case of the death of a candidate, however, the related supporting parties would be allowed to nominate a replacement candidate.
 

Zatoth

Member
Interesting. Thanks. Would be an interesting vote with only one candidate. :D

hofburg_vfgh_urteil_reax_body01_a.4697639.jpg


Hofer kinda reminds me of a Bond villain.
 

Dr.Acula

Banned
I like how the Finnish nationalist party is called "The Finns!"

They sound the most fun.

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Sweden Democrats and ELAM sound okayish, everyone else sounds fascist.
 

oddjobs

Member
I like how the Finnish nationalist party is called "The Finns!"

In finnish it's Perussuomalaiset (perus = basic, suomalaiset = finns) which would be an apropo bad translation and description for the people voting them. Usually they're called "True Finns" abroad which is even worse than "The Finns" IMO.
 
"Following the court's order to re-run the vote, President Heinz Fischer will be replaced on a temporary basis by three parliamentary officials, including Mr Hofer."

How is this even remotely a good idea?

I know the executive branch in America has more power than Austria's president has, but just imagine Paul Ryan was the Republican nominee, the Supreme Court ruling that the election was mishandled, ordering a re-vote, and declaring that in the interim, the presidency would be held by Ryan, McConnell and Pelosi.
 
"Following the court's order to re-run the vote, President Heinz Fischer will be replaced on a temporary basis by three parliamentary officials, including Mr Hofer."

How is this even remotely a good idea?

I know the executive branch in America has more power than Austria's president has, but just imagine Paul Ryan was the Republican nominee, the Supreme Court ruling that the election was mishandled, ordering a re-vote, and declaring that in the interim, the presidency would be held by Ryan, McConnell and Pelosi.

It was summer break there was nothing to do anyway. He's been on the committee for months now and I don't remember them having to make any decision on anything.

I watched an interview with Hofer recently and it's scary how he can sidestep most of the issues and stigma his party carries. Like he almost sounds reasonable if you compare him to Strache. Which is ludicrous considering he's a fuckwad
 
"Following the court's order to re-run the vote, President Heinz Fischer will be replaced on a temporary basis by three parliamentary officials, including Mr Hofer."

How is this even remotely a good idea?

I know the executive branch in America has more power than Austria's president has, but just imagine Paul Ryan was the Republican nominee, the Supreme Court ruling that the election was mishandled, ordering a re-vote, and declaring that in the interim, the presidency would be held by Ryan, McConnell and Pelosi.

What real alternative do you see?

In Poland, after death of a president, his powers were transferred temporarily exclusively to the (opposing party's) parliament speaker, who, coincidentally or not, proceeded to win the presidential election. The committee solution sounds fairly less biasing.

Unless it's a case of "I don't like this man, why is he in that committee", in which case, duh.
 

Fliesen

Member
What real alternative do you see?

In Poland, after death of a president, his powers were transferred temporarily exclusively to the (opposing party's) parliament speaker, who, coincidentally or not, proceeded to win the presidential election. The committee solution sounds fairly less biasing.

Unless it's a case of "I don't like this man, why is he in that committee", in which case, duh.

i think, for many it's also a consequence of "why did Hofer not step down from his position as the 3rd national council president, when he announced he would be running for office?" (like Hundstorfer did, like Ferrero-Waldner did)

edit: as a disclaimer. i don't really care who's temporarily holding the office. I'm utterly baffled Austria is unable to properly hold an election, though.
Still wondering why it's going to be postponed by 2 months(!). Producing a new run of postal election envelopes and ballots can't be that hard, can it? :p
 
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