Since 1945, the ÖVP no longer has the “high C” in its party name. The delineation of its predecessor – the Christian Socials – was not that one wanted to be unchristian. But the commitment to parliamentary democracy. But what about the principles of Karl Nehammer & Co. 67 years later?
1. The ÖVP wants to be a people’s party. Political science has nothing to do with the party name. The aim is to find the same support among all voter groups. Despite the black country and sub-organizations for everything and everyone, deep rifts are emerging. In terms of federal politics, those who earn little rely less and less on the ÖVP. Since one weakens even with the retirees. However, larger entrepreneurs and senior workers, as well as rural areas and their farmers, are not a sufficient basis.
2. Conversely, younger city dwellers do nothing with the ÖVP. At least ideologically, because they find them hypocritical and only interested in maintaining power. Too often, the federal capital has been a welcome sandbag, as it maximizes votes in rural areas. At the moment, Wien Energie’s highly dubious stock exchange transactions are just right. hmm. Anyone who lives in a glass house and is accused of corruption – such is the case with the ÖVP – should think about their morals and ethics.
3. A party that gets somewhere between 20 and 25 percent in the polls can target parts of the electorate. Clear. But it should say so and say goodbye to the historical ideal of a social integration party that unites the most diverse social groups and currents. Yes, you read that right: the ÖVP once campaigned for more integration.
4. The farewell to own values also happened under Sebastian Kurz. Regardless of whether and what criminal charges are brought against him. As a professional communicator on basic values, Kurz was able to speak fine words and, as chairman, he allowed his party and as chancellor the government to degenerate into a kind of public relations agency. If something brought more popularity and power, you didn’t interfere in moral considerations.
5. Until his resignation, the Styrian provincial governor Hermann Schützenhöfer – whatever one might think of his politics and his mistakes – was regarded as Kurz’s contradiction. With him, not everything was more apparent than reality, his Christian values canon as a political basis was undisputed. The principles of too many federal politicians of the ÖVP are not so clear.
6. Christian social teaching consists of three basic principles. personality, solidarity and subsidiarity. What sounds complicated is easy to explain. Personality means human dignity, which should never be misused as a mere means to other ends. However, the ÖVP wants a strict immigration policy in the fight with the FPÖ purely for election tactics. When it comes to asylum, it can lead to conflicts with Christian morality and – as with Karl Nehammer’s arguably illegal deportation of Georgian girls – the law.
7. Solidarity means community thinking. The ÖVP – not just them, this applies to all parties – has politicized and polarized everything from the so-called “foreigner question” to fighting the corona pandemic to current inflation. Any hope of a national alliance has become a joke.
8. Finally, subsidiarity requires that problems be solved where they arise. For migration issues, the ÖVP fits into the concept. At the same time, it would mean that the state does not interfere in all aspects of life, from family to school and in the economy. In times of crisis, however, you need a strong state.
9. So the ÖVP is neither liberal there nor there. But national to nationalist and economic policy anyway a treasurer. With the Chamber of Commerce, the ÖVP as its home power has a constitutionally guaranteed advocacy, where the highest officials of the ÖVP exchange and govern and possibly pack things up. In Vorarlberg, this has led to a huge party scandal involving advertisements and strange contract awards.
10. Is all this too theoretical and too history of ideas? Practical and related to the present, the future of the ÖVP is black. Namely in the upcoming federal elections in Tyrol. The worst result ever is considered certain. Nevertheless, the ÖVP will then focus on securing government power through negotiation tactics, and not on reflection and contemplation.
Source: Krone
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