Censoring the internet is a popular topic among all center parties in Europe. For example "Hate-speech" censorship, where the end justifies the means, is popular among many left leaning parties.
Isn't the proposal from an ÖVP minister? Does the ÖVP not qualify as center-right?
The OeVP current platform is to curb rights of immigrants, to reduce social support systems, lowers corporate tax rates, introduces laws to restrict social housing to non immigrants, reduces child support payments for children in other EU countries, continues the policy on border controls in Schengen, restricts skilled immigration, sets a maximum limit of 1.5 euro per hour income for asylum seekers when doing social service. What did this party do that’s center?
The policies that OeVP introduces and advocates are more restrictive and conservative than the FPOe did under Haider.
Almost all your points are about immigration. Yes, they have certainly moved to the right on immigration. Even the centre-left social democrates have moved right in this regard. But that still doesn't make the conservatives a right-wing party.
Compared to the past they have also moved left on other topics: e.g. by not touching pensions.
"restricts skilled immigration": Funny, since they have also been criticized for allowing more immigration. Ironically from left-leaning people.
"reduce social support systems": Well, they mostly retargeted social support. All polls showed that a large majority of the people supported these changes. People thought the old system enforced the wrong incentives.
Also let's not forget that they reduced taxes on salaries specifically for working-class families substantially.
"lowers corporate tax rates": IIRC they have only lowered one tax slightly for a single sector (tourism) so far. Hardly anything dramatic.
Still, all these points are not too surprising for conservatives in general. If this is enough for you to call them right-wing, that's certainly fine for me.
Just to add: I've talked to people that directly called the Austrian conservatives an extreme right party ;) I know you didn't go as far, but they were also pretty serious about that. Maybe we can agree that at least "extrem right" is ridiculous. I personally don't get where this overly-dramatic phrasing comes from. Are some people so upset that for once the chancellor is not a social-democrat?
> "restricts skilled immigration": Funny, since they have also been criticized for allowing more immigration. Ironically from left-leaning people.
Who criticised them for that? The only thing they did was introduce low skilled immigration (eg: fruit pickers, cooks and other people in the tourism industry).
> "reduce social support systems": Well, they mostly retargeted social support. All polls showed that a large majority of the people supported these changes. People thought the old system enforced the wrong incentives.
"retarget" just means to reduce support for foreigners and low income families with many children (which correlates to families of Turkish background). Yes, many people think the system enforces the wrong incentives but none of the proposals to improve the incentives where even considered. For instance Nostandshilfe is not being touched because it's predominantly Austrians that are hanging in it.
> Also let's not forget that they reduced taxes on salaries specifically for working-class families substantially.
Even after the tax cuts Austrians pay more in taxes and social contributions today than they did before. The reason for this is that DG/DZ and social contributions increase automatically every year.
None of your examples demostrate how this party would be in the center. They are significantly more to the right than the population is.
> Are some people so upset that for once the chancellor is not a social-democrat?
No, many people are upset because they worry about the future of the country. I for instance worry a lot because the policies set in place in the last few months are dangerous. We already have a very unstable system in the past with very little transparency into what the government is doing (eg: no freedom of information) but how they are from a central position controlling some of the entities that were at least somewhat impartial (like the central bank, the statistic agency etc.).
I don't care who controls the country, I want that the government is transparent and does not get too much power. They are putting more and more powers in place, they are enacting unconstitutional laws and are overwhealming the courts which are busy shutting these things down but it takes time. They are also completely eroding the public discourse with their framing.
Any hope that Austria would have a path towards social liberties and a more business friendly environment were completely scattered since the last election. It's a coalition that blames everything on foreigners and puts laws in place for large donors of the parties.
> None of your examples demostrate how this party would be in the center.
I was merely arguing that party is center-right. I think I brought some examples, but obviously I am biased as well. Makes me curious how you categorize other parties in Europe if the Austrian conservatives are already right-wings to you (think Orban, FPO, Le Pen, Golden Dawn, NPD,...)
> I for instance worry a lot because the policies set in place in the last few months are dangerous.
This is where I really disagree, so many of these accusations are so blown out of proportion to me.
Best example to me was when some party leader of the opposition was literally speaking of "fascism", such that even the president (former leader of the green party) called that exaggerated. The opposition was arguing this way since before the government was even appointed, this is not just about the policies in the "last few months". Certainly a legitimate tactic of the opposition, but nothing I fear at all.
> Makes me curious how you categorize other parties in Europe if the Austrian conservatives are already right-wings to you (think Orban, FPO, Le Pen, Golden Dawn, NPD,...)
Right wing to right wing extremism. In particular NPD is very far to the right. Some of these parties are not just about being on the right but also outright racist without hiding it.
> This is where I really disagree, so many of these accusations are so blown out of proportion to me.
You’re likely not directly affected by their policies. I am. I’m married to a foreigner and employ non EU foreigners and I got to experience the changes directly.
As an example to the new policies that silently became a thing is that my wife as a non EU foreigner is no longer allowed to carry a pepper spray. We now need to proof every year that our children are going to the doctor or Kindergarten and that my wife’s permit did not lapse to continue receiving tax credits and Familienbeihilfe. It’s a joke as the kids are Austrian citizens and entitled regardless of her status.
Destroying the welfare state was done by the SPD in Germany.
Citizen tracking sounds more like what the "communist" party of China would do.
Some decades ago Franz Josef Strauss was considered "right wing". It seems to me that the items you list would have been considered center-right in the 1990s.
But do the ÖVP actually do that? I'm Spanish and I voted for a "conservative" government this last election, where they promised to do, well, stuff I expected from a conservative party, and they didn't do shit. That's why I call them "centrist". They say they are conservatives, but they don't conserve anything.
I only enumerated things they put into law out they proposed or supported from the start.
The things the FPOe did was getting rid of the smoking ban, raising the speed limits to 140, renaming the immigration centers to “departure centers”, proposals to cut the funding of the public broadcaster.
Together they converted the country in record time into a dystopian place. Even putting childhood education back into former times by reintroducing marks for primary schoolers and minimum requirements that can cause children under 10 to have to repeat a class.
They are now both also starting to talk about rolling back abortion rights.
> Well, the conservatives and the right are not going to implement left politics. Austria was certainly NOT converted into a "dystopian place".
A country with that much power given to the government with so little oversight, no transparency is a problem. Austria is a country of immigration and the rules in place for immigrants are awful (from both access to citizenship and rights). What is currently being done has the chance to erode the social fabric more than any other government did before.
> Like it or not: Some time ago, a left-leaning newspaper (Standard) wrote that the current government has the best polls recorded so far.
Obviously I don't like it, and it worries me a lot. I'm not sure any if this is the country I want my children to grow up in.
Yeah, when I voted for the conservatives here I thought they would roll back abortion rights but they didn't, I thought they would fix the immigration madness but they didn't, and that's why I and many other people are voting far right next election: the conservative party has simply failed to be conservative, they just became centrists to attract more votes, and I sure hope it will backfire.
And that's why these laws are popping up all over Europe: they want to maintain control, they are scared of new parties.
What specifically would you like them to conserve? I find conservatism confusing because the specific base state that apparently needs to be conserved differs from person to person. Do you want to go back to feudalism? Do you want to go back to the bronze age? Or do you just want to go back to when the literacy rate was below 50%? Conservatism needs to be specific in its goals otherwise it only represents a desire for a purely unchanging society.
Isn't the proposal from an ÖVP minister? Does the ÖVP not qualify as center-right?