Austria veers to the right: Kurz sends his problems to Bosnia and Herzegovina

(Patria) - Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in an interview for Dnevni avaz, Wednesday's edition, that a change in the European migration policy system is needed, and stressed that a decisive fight against illegal migration and orderly protection of external borders are necessary.

In the same interview, Kurz adds that migrants need to be returned to their home countries as quickly as possible.

Leading European politicians have warned in recent years that Austria has made a serious turn to the right. For years, Austria was one of the most open countries for receiving immigrants from foreign countries, but recently, with the conservatives coming to power, this policy has begun to change rapidly.

Capital of the left

Vienna is the only capital of a European country where, since 1945 and the end of World War II, no right-wing candidate has ever managed to win the mayoral election. In the last elections, there was a danger that this tradition would be broken, but the left-wing candidate still managed to win by a narrow majority.

At the state level, presidential and then parliamentary elections were held at the end of last year. In the presidential elections, right-wing candidate Norbert Hofer from the Freedom Party won as much as 35 percent of the vote in the first round, ahead of Green candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, who won 21.3 percent of the vote, but Van der Bellen managed to win in the second round thanks to the mobilization of all left-wing parties, with 53.8 percent of the vote.

However, when it comes to parliamentary elections, the right managed to win. The People's Party won 62 seats in parliament, and the Freedom Party 51, so they managed to form a coalition and government without problems. The new Chancellor of Austria (Prime Minister) became Sebastian Kurz, while Heinz-Christian Strache, a man known for radical right-wing views, was elected Vice Chancellor. Many high-ranking members of his party have never hidden their sympathies for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

In the context of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Strache and other members of his party have recently been inclined towards the policies of Milorad Dodik, and Dodik himself, ahead of the last elections in Austria, called on the diaspora in Austria to vote for the Freedom Party, even though that party openly fights against foreigners in Austrian society.

Shifting problems onto others

In the interview with Avaz, Kurz also boasted about the expulsion of a large number of imams from some mosques considered to advocate radical views, and announced new expulsions. For years, Europe has been warned that Austria was a center of radical groups, and Austrian policy, primarily the current Kurz government, did not know how to deal with them, but, analysts warn, decided to expel them and shift the problem onto others. Most radical Salafis in Bosnia and Herzegovina are also financed from certain circles based in Austria.

It can be said that, like all right-wing and populist governments, the Austrian government led by Sebastian Kurz also shifts its problems onto others to solve. Migrants who had no place in European countries like Austria were not returned to their home countries – most of these migrants ended up in the Western Balkans, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, which now represents a huge problem for the country.

On the other hand, Austrian society is completely different from the current government. This was shown by the large protests against the current government just two days after it was formed. Protesters then carried placards on the streets of Vienna and shouted that Austria would not become a home for right-wingers and would not turn into a safe house for fascists.

Public opinion polls show that the popularity of the current Kurz government is already in sharp decline, and that it would almost certainly not manage to win even a remotely similar number of votes if elections were held today.

Austrian society clearly tells Kurz that he is leading the country in the wrong direction.