Traiskirchen is also the location of one of two official intake centers for refugees in Austria. So the city has years of experience in handling refugees coming into the country. Traiskirchen has for years been providing a concrete, practical example of how refugee issues can be handled professionally, compassionately, and safely.
And they know you don't achieve that with xenophoblic demagoguery. Babler this week posted on Facebook (18.10.2022):
My English translation:
Tents, homelessness, self-produced conditions ..... [he means produced by the current Austrian national government]
We will now be more active in pointing out to the public this sad political spectacle by the ÖVP [the Christian Democratic People's Party, currently the senior partner in the national coalition government] and the months-long failure of its responsible Interior Minister [Gerald Karner of the ÖVP].
While more and more people [in Austria] no longer know how to finance their heating and housing costs or their food purchases in the coming weeks and months, and the government gets almost nothing together, once again the lowest propaganda club [xenophobia] is being brought out at the expense of refugees (and also our city and other communities).
The only good thing is, that this time very few people are getting involved in the same campaigns.He's being hopeful and optimistic on the last point. But there are people getting actively involved. The far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) has been at it for decades now, and they are still in there plugging away. And many of the leaders of the ÖVP are doing the same, including Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Interior Minister Karner, the latter an apparent admirer of the Austrofascist dictator of the 1930s, Engelbert Dollfuss.
Babler is showing how politicians can push back against the xenophobic rhetoric. The Austrian government, and all other EU governments for that matter, have known since February 24 that a large number of Ukrainian refugees would be coming. And, for whatever combination of reasons, the national government has obviously been remiss in its preparation.
Babler also posted this German-language interview with the ORF news service in which he directly accuses Nehammer's government of staging the refugee situation as a crisis. He calls it "complete nonsense" (völlig Blödsinn) to claim that there is a "big crisis." (Andreas Babler, Die Regierung inszeniert eine Asyl-Krise ORF/ZiB Nacht 18.10.2022)
Austrian political news right now is dominated by the scandals around former ÖVP Chancellor and fallen messiah Sebastian Kurz and his "turquoise" faction of the party. That means the temptation will be strong to divert press and public attention from the scandals with xenophobic theater.
There's plenty of homegrown bigotry all over the place, so foreign manipulation isn't necessary to produce it. But we also don't live in a world of autarkic nations operating in isolation. Not only commerce and fossil fuel pollution cross international borders, but so do politics and political ideas. And, yes, every nation tries to influence not only governmental but public impressions of their country in other nations.
But it is also clearly one of the Russian goals in the war with Ukraine to generate refugees and to use the refugee issue to create divisions between EU nations and weaken EU unity in general. Russian propaganda did try - in part successfully - to exacerbate the so-called refugee "crisis" of 2015-16. Expect more of the same in coming months.
There's nothing inherently wrong in the Grand Scheme Of Things for a party or individuals to share or approve of ideas advocated by a foreign government or party. Poland adopted a constitution in 1791, the first in Europe, and it was inspired by the democratic movements that produced the American and French Revolutions. Picking up "foreign" political ideas is nothing new. It wasn't new in 1791, either.
But in the real world of 2022, it's also important to recognize that parties like the FPÖ in Austria and the Lega in Italy and leaders like Viktor Orbán in Hungary not only look to Putin's political model as a goal and ideal. And stand for a Russia-friendly foreign policy at this point in time. As George Mayer recently reported (Ungarns Premier Orbán "konsultiert" das Volk zu EU-Sanktionen Standard 19.10.2022; my translation):
However, serious criticism of Russia and its President Vladimir Putin is not to be found in the Orbán media. Rather, they are increasingly spreading pro-Russian narratives, such as that the escalation [in Ukraine] is the fault of the West or that Russia is no worse off despite sanctions and that it cannot be defeated militarily.Facts matter. So does critical thinking. So does responsible political leadership.
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