Epiphanies, European Union, Elections

The epiphanies of course are all these populist people appearing from nowhere (ok, Tyrolia, Burgenland, etc.) suddenly running for parliament. Populism has two big strenghts - simple answers to complex questions; and the promise of doing things "differently". Its weakness shows when populists suddenly are given the opportunity to actually demonstrate their "different" ways, and face a reality that doesn't deal with simple answers. O'Reilly on Letterman wanted a simple answer, and David responded "It's not simple to me, because I'm a thoughtful person". This applies to politics maybe more than to anything else in the world, and thoughtful people may question the simple answers populists give, and whether or not they would be practicable if these populists manage to achieve gouvernmental power.

The European Union is something Austrians don't seem to quite understand, or appreciate. It has given more wealth, more rights within Europe and more privileges to us than to most other European countries; still, it is blamed for everything that goes wrong - next thing we know, the infamous Salzburger Schnürlregen is the consequence of an EU directive. derStandard took up the challenge of correcting this image, and writing some new chapters into the Austrian - EU book. Still, as long as our epiphanies continue with "EU's fault" as their favourite Simple Answer, the efforts may be wasted.

So, we are allowed to elect a new gouvernment on Sept. 28th... A chance for the SPÖ to get rid of the great coalition, a chance for the ÖVP to let the voter "correct the mistake" they did in the last elections, a chance for the FPÖ to actually become a big party in Austria again, a chance for die Grünen to enter gouvernment for the first time, a chance for the BZÖ to... what? Finally disappear? Lots of chances for our little parties and epiphanies to destroy the possibilities for stable coalitons and force us back into the SPÖVP coalition we learned to suffer through the last 2 years.

For the first time since I'm allowed to vote, I am thinking of voting void.....