The trees and bushes in full bloom, The sun shining from cloudless skies, and ... and what ?!!
Right now it is snowing like crazy. Last night and early this morning the temperature was -8 C.
This is MINUS 8 degrees Celsius.
Water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius..
What, in hell, is happening here ?
Has Nature gone as crazy as the voters of this country ?
Austrian Voters? Crazy?
You had better believe it. They voted for a position, similar to the Governor General in Canada.
A person, one step above the Parliament, but with little power.
This person, the Bundespräsident ( President of the Federation ) may advise, persuade, within the country, and represent the Country outside, on the international level.
Under specific circumstances he may also dissolve Government.
So, he is not that powerless after all. Is he ?
This man, who, after a final run-off election, may become the "Governor General" of Austria belongs to the FPÖ,
the "Freedom Party of Austria."
A very Right Wing political party.
"Austria and Austrians above all" ( does this sound a little like "Deutschland über Alles"?
To Hell with the Asylum seekers.
Although he does not actually say it, he would gladly send them all back to where-ever they had come from, irrespective of their fate.
Since he did not receive 51 but only 37% of the votes, a run-off election is needed with the second in the popular vote count.
Judging by the mood in the country, I fear that he may win this run-off.
His name is Norbert Hofer and among other affiliations he belongs to the "Burschenschaft ( Boys Club ) Marko-Germania zu Pinkafeld", whose motto is: "Ehre, Freiheit und Vaterland" ("Honour, Freedom and Fatherland" )
The use of this terminology scares me: The Regime which dictated life in Austria between 1938 and 1945 loved and used those words freely: On their dagger , which I, as a 10 year old was allowed to carry, the inscription on the blade read: "Blut und Ehre" (Blood and Honour )
Their slogans ran the gamut of "Freedom, Liberty and Bread" right up to the inscription above the Concentration Camp of Dachau: "Labour liberates". (Arbeit macht frei)
While words like Honour, Freedom, Fatherland, Peace, Bread, are surely beautiful words, in recent history they were excessively used by Fascist Governments and, in my mind at least, when used in political propaganda, they carry a very right wing connotation.
( By the way, I am far from the only one with these thoughts and worries about Mr. Hofer.)
Judging by the attached pictures and the political happenings one might assume that the "ice time" has returned.
Since I took these pictures, lots more snow has fallen.
Holy MOly and I thought we were having a cold beginning to spring
ReplyDeleteThis shift to the right, perhaps, was inevitable considering the extremely poor handling of the migrant crisis by the leftist governments and subsequent cover up in the media across several EU nations. Unfortunately because of Western Europes nasty history with the extreme right, people fear a repeat of history. This wariness is wisdom, leaving in place a system and government that places your people in danger is not. Simply throwing open the borders and hoping for the best, without any plan is ludicrous and I think the EU is dealing with the result now.
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