Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on Austria's Freedom Party securing first far-right political victory since World War II

Austria's far-right Freedom Party has secured a historic political victory following the recent election.

The party finished first with 29.2 percent of the vote, beating out the OVP's 26.2 percent, and the centre-left Social Democrats' 20.4 percent.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey says it doesn't have the support to form a majority Government - and the other parties are apprehensive about forming a coalition.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time to catch up with UK corresponding Devin Gray, who's
with us this evening? Hi, Gevin, Hi there, Jack, So
talk to us about this far right Freedom Party in
Austria just under thirty percent of the vote, meaning it
is celebrating what is an historic election victory.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, it sure is sensitive times of course with Austria
when you're talking about the far right and its links
of course to Hitler and the war. But the party
of the far right, the Freedom Party, won by almost
three points ahead of the more conservative People's Party. However,
it is far short of forming a majority, and that's

(00:38):
going to be the issue because most of the other
parties are ruling out categorically joining in any type of
coalition with the FPO. That said, one of them says, yes,
I might join it, but not with the current leader
as leader. Why are they so sensitive? Well, because the
fire In leader, Herbert Keekl, has promised Austrians to build

(00:59):
Fortress of Austria, as he's described it, to restore their security,
prosperity and peace. He's also described himself as the volks
cancelor that's called People's Chancellor. And I'm afraid that's what
Adolf Hitler used to describe himself as in Nazi Germany,
and indeed the party was founded by Nazis in the
nineteen fifties, and two days before the votes, some of

(01:20):
its candidates were caught on video singing an SS song
at a funeral. Anyway, they've won the battle, will now
be on to tranform some sort of a government. The
issues of migration asylum were very high up on this.
This could be bad news for Ukraine as well. They
promised to turn the tap off of funding them much
more pro Russian and it'll be a huge thorn in

(01:41):
the side of the EU Bloc, which now has a
right wing Italian government and also far right support in
France and the Netherlands too.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
So what is the likelihood given that this leader is
going to stand down, given he is individually so popular
and undoubtedly charismetic, regardless of his politics, is there any
real possibility that will stand down so they can actually
form a coalition and govern.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, I wouldn't have thought. So there might be some
sort of middle ground where maybe he's not the leader
on paper or by name, but you know, he's got
some other title. But as you said, he's popular, so
It's unlikely he's going to just sort of decide to go,
but there will be pressure on the other parties, I think,
to actually form a coalition. This is what people voted for. However,
when the Freedom Party, the right wing far right one

(02:29):
in the Netherlands, the leader Hurt Wilders, agreed to drop
his bid to become prime minister so that three other
parties would agree to form a coalition with his.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
This is a phenomenon, we're saying right across Europe, right
as anywhere in Europe not experiencing a such in popularity
for far right parties.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well, i'd look I put some kind of point to
the UK because of course we've gone from center right
to center left, but we're definitely against the trend.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, very good point. Speaking of the
UK government, they've titled Rules around Ministerial Hospitality.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
What a start to the premiership this has been for
the Labor Party, the new government as of early July,
they've had an absolute terrible a week of their own making, really,
with the announcement of lots and lots of freebies having
been accepted within just the first few weeks of power.
So the Prime Minister Sirkirstarma originally declared about thirty five

(03:26):
thousand pounds worth of new clothes and he declared those
as work for his private office. That's going to be recategorized.
We've had other scandals of tickets, but now the government
is saying it's going to tighten up on these transparency rules.
So when a minister receives hospitality linked to their government job,
they've normally declared in their MPs register. They very rarely

(03:50):
do declare it by their departments that that's going to
be a specific requirement to do that under these new rules.
And also they have to put a figure on how
much it's worth. They haven't had to do in the past.
And incidentally, all this has come up in the first
few weeks of his premiership. The next list, which governs
the next period of time, is due to come up
just later this startup our.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
It does seem like a bit of an own goal
for ken Stahmer, isn't it. I mean, you know, they
were all about, you know, restoring standards an office, or
at least they seem to be during the election campaign,
trying to differentiate themselves from the Lewis Truss's and Boris
Johnson's maybe lest of the richie sunex but certainly the
conservative leadership style that had defined a couple of those

(04:34):
conservative prime ministers. It just seems like such an avoidable
kind of era, don't you think.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, absolutely a complete misstep, and plenty of people have
been pointing that out. And it isn't just the prime minister,
it's other senior members of his team as well, and
one a labor MP has quit as well, saying it's
been absolutely.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Disgusting, Gavin. The number of uni aged students needing support
for eating disorders has more than double than recent years.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah, very sad. This according to a charity which offers
to support to people over the phone, basically saying that
in a period from eight Pril twenty three to March
twenty four, their sessions are numbered more than fifteen thousand
helps calls for help from eighteen to twenty two year
olds and that's up from six thy six hundred for

(05:23):
the same period twenty nineteen to twenty two. So over
the last five years than the calls for help of
more than doubled. Some of it, yes, managing of finances,
because of course life as a student can be tough,
but managing groceries, getting to class on time, anxiety, being
away from home, new way of working and studying, meeting
new friends. All of this, of course comes Most people

(05:47):
seem to sort of fine with it, but there does
seem to be this growing, I don't know, lack of
certainty about yourself, like a confidence about yourself, which is
deeply concerning. So they're calling for more mental health centers
to be set up in universities to this.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, I wonder if it's interesting, right, because COVID has
isolated people, but you know, you're wonder to what extent.
You know, it's hard to understand, but that phenomenon has
kind of has has influenced the surge.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's been very So it's also been
seen in hospitals as well, which has seen an increase
in eating disorder referrals up eighty two percent since twenty
nineteen twenty twenty. So yeah, it's not just UNIS, but
it is young people affected the most, and it is
affecting both those unis and the National Health Service.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Really appreciate your time as always, given that as you can.
Europe correspondent Gavin Gray for more from Hither Dupless Alan Drive.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
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