Anti-worker, nationalist coalition talks herald turning point in Austrian political landscape

Ever since the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) took the most votes in the election last September, a number of the establishment parties have been desperately seeking to form a coalition government to prevent its coming to power. But despite their best efforts, the coalition negotiations between the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and the New Austria and Liberal Forum (NEOS) have failed.

[Originally published in German at derfunke.at]

NEOS brought down the house of cards that was the three-way coalition by withdrawing from the government negotiations on 3 January. Political instability has turned into political chaos, from which a government led by Herbert Kickl, leader of the right-wing FPÖ, may emerge.

The question must be asked, why? The answer is essential in order to fully understand the challenges facing the labour movement.

Talks collapse

On 3 January, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, the leader of NEOS, explained her party's decision to pull out of the coalition talks as follows:

“These are challenging times in which we have to clearly state the question ‘What can we do?’ Austria is in the throes of a deep economic crisis for the third year in a row. Companies are being forced to lay off employees. The prevailing inflation was prepared by low interest rate policy, ultimately triggered by Putin's attack on Ukraine and the shortage of energy.

“The situation is more than unstable: Ukraine, Syria, Russia, the Trump presidency. The situation is anything but ordinary, and there can be no business as usual. (...) But the ÖVP and SPÖ are not prepared to tackle ‘bold projects’, they are only exchanging interests.”

As we shall see, the liberals’ ‘bold projects’ include a permanent automatic increase in the retirement age to 67, public sector wage freezes, no adjustment of pensions for inflation and other brutal social attacks on the working class. At least this much is being said openly: yes, capitalism is in crisis, so let the workers pay for it!

NEOS, a political sect of the wealthy, openly express here the real interests of the capitalists in general: to boost falling profits at the expense of the workers.

The idea that the capitalists should pay for the crisis themselves (even if only a symbolic part, according to the approach of the social democrats) is therefore nothing but old-fashioned, obstructive, ideology-driven politics for liberals and conservatives today.

U-turn

The paralysis triggered by the liberals’ decision was once again eased by the federal president, Alexander Van der Bellen.

For years, Van der Bellen has been the architect and executive engineer of the failed three-way coalition / Image: public domain

For years, Van der Bellen has been the architect and executive engineer of the failed three-way coalition. He assured the ÖVP and SPÖ that they would be able to continue in government together, to the exclusion of the right-wing FPÖ which topped the popular vote, and informed the population of this on the evening of 3 January. On the same day, the ÖVP also firmly backed its chairman, Chancellor Nehammer.

However, the next evening Nehammer left the negotiations with the SPÖ and announced his resignation from all offices. He refused to answer any questions, and lashed out against the SPÖ in order to initiate a U-turn of the party’s leadership towards Kickl's chancellorship.

On 5 January, ÖVP Secretary-General Stocker took over the chairmanship of the ÖVP in a short meeting at short notice. The chancellorship has since been handed over (again) to Foreign Minister Schallenberg.

A minority in the ÖVP is still arguing in favour of continuing negotiations with NEOS, with the tacit support of the SPÖ and the Greens. However, the ÖVP grandees, first-class turncoats, quickly and unequivocally decided in favour of a hard-line bourgeois bloc under the leadership of Kickl’s FPÖ. They responded ‘flexibly’ to the situation, out of a sense of responsibility to the republic, of course!

Kickl accepted the mandate to form a government and invited ÖVP leader Stocker to coalition talks on 7 January. Kickl set two conditions: that the ÖVP recognise the new balance of power – i.e. his political leadership – and that the ÖVP take responsibility for the fact that the country has been fiscally, politically, and morally ‘run down’ over the past five years (i.e. under ÖVP’s own leadership), and that a harder approach involving greater austerity is now necessary.

If the ÖVP publicly repents in this way, Kickl will offer confidential talks with the ÖVP leadership. However, Kickl has said that he will call new elections if the ÖVP abuses his trust.

This blatant demand for political submission from the ÖVP was answered just as bluntly by the ÖVP’s new chairman Stocker who said that the ÖVP would only enter a government that clearly stands by the ‘western rule of law’, liberal democracy, a strong EU, opposition to Russia and freedom of the media.

Stocker is merely repeating what Brussels and German politicians expect from Austria. Nevertheless, the new leader of the ÖVP has clearly accepted the FPÖ's offer of talks.

This reflects a split in the ÖVP itself. The industrialist wing of the party is the most ferocious public supporter of an alliance with the FPÖ, but three standing ministers (including foreign minister Schallenberg) have publicly stated they would not enter such a coalition.

Mobilise!

Some commentators want federal president Van der Bellen to take a harder line against a Kickl chancellorship. This is a hopeless delusion.

Had the political establishment continued to manoeuvre to prevent Kickl from becoming chancellor, it would have triggered a national crisis and massively increased support for the FPÖ among the population. We have always opposed such manoeuvring and continue to do so; it only benefits the capitalists. The FPÖ is already polling at 35 percent, well above its election result.

Instead, we say, and not for the first time: the bourgeoisie (whether right-wing or liberal) can only be defeated by mobilising the working class on the streets and in the factories.

Without propagating and organising the class struggle, the balance of power in society cannot be shifted in favour of the working class. This lesson must be taken to heart and placed at the centre of every political consideration. The bloc of the bourgeoisie – whether in power or in an election campaign – must be confronted with the fist of the organised and mobilised working class!

No to lesser-evilism

On Thursday evening in four major cities of Austria, tens of thousands took to the streets to express their will to fight against the new turn of events. But the movement against the FPÖ has an Achilles’ heel: the idea that to block the FPÖ from forming a new, reactionary government we must keep on to promote the ‘lesser evil’.

The movement against the FPÖ has an Achilles’ heel: the idea that to block the FPÖ from forming a new, reactionary government we must keep on to promote the ‘lesser evil’ / Image: Michael Lucan, Wikimedia Commons

In the smaller cities, where there were open mics, comrades noted a fierce interest in all political contributions. This included the proposal of the RKP to initiate a broad campaign in the working class and youth to block the formation of a government.

However, at the main rally in Vienna, the political strategy of the ‘civil society’ organisers involved not raising any political ideas at all. Instead, they issued a call appealing to the media monopolies to put pressure on the president of the Republic to stop this political development. Even if you go to a rally, you are supposed to be a mere passive figure for other class interests!

This is the prolongation of the strategy of lesser evilism, which has been promoted in Austria and Germany for more than a year now (whereas they were using the slogan, ‘never again is now’, ‘save democracy’ is now being used to justify supporting the ‘lesser evil’).

The idea of blocking the FPÖ from forming a new reactionary government with a coalition of lesser evils – which has the full ideological and material support of the reformist SPÖ and KPÖ – has completely disarmed the working class: politically, ideologically and in the factories. It has gone hand-in-hand with a total demobilisation of trade union struggle since last autumn, as a peace offering which the reformist parties hope will get them invited into government.

Despite the complete failure of this policy, it is still being promoted by the reformist leaders and protests are organised in this spirit. This threatens to kill the movement. However, the splits in the ruling class offer the opportunity not only to stop the FPÖ, but to significantly strengthen the working class against the whole bourgeoisie – if we dare to take up the fight in a bold manner.

Nationalism trumps liberalism worldwide

The move of the conservatives heralds a turn in Austria, which has become the leitmotif of ruling classes everywhere since Trump's election victory in the USA.

The victory of ‘America First’ – which stands for trade tariffs, the end of climate policy, military muscle-flexing in America’s backyard (Trump has announced that he wants Canada, Greenland and Panama to join the USA) and passing the bill for the Ukraine war to the Europeans – is forcing the capitalists of all nations to fall back on nationalism and protectionism for the defence of their own interests.

The EU is being crushed. It is increasingly unable to formulate a common ‘European’ response to these threats, since the interests of the individual nation states in Europe are too divergent.

The failure of the three-way talks in Austria is one in a series of sudden government crises following Trump's election on 5 November: the end of the ‘traffic light’ coalition in Germany (6 November), the fall of the Barnier government in France (4 December), the cancellation of the presidential election in Romania after a right-wing demagogue won (6 December), and the resignation of Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau after several months of government crisis (6 January).

Worldwide, there is a shift of a section of the ruling class towards protectionism. In the polls, the crisis of capitalism and the collapse of liberalism is being capitalised on by right-wing demagogues presenting themselves as ‘anti-establishment’ because of the lack of any serious alternative on the left. Global climate policy, multilateralism and the ‘defence of liberal democracy’, as proclaimed by Joe Biden (and the EU Commission), are being dashed by capitalist reality. Under capitalism, the contradictions in a world market beset by overproduction are forcing a retrenchment towards economic nationalism.

‘Austria First’

In Austria too, the time has come for capital to put the interests of domestic profits, banks and conditions of production at the centre of politics.

While New Year's party-goers were heading to bed, the last Russian gas molecules were pumped across the Austrian border, ending a lifeline which has lasted six decades. Now, Austria's most important energy supply line (which accounts for 22 percent of Austria's total energy needs) is out of service.

Raiffeisenbank International, the country's leading financial institution, is in a hopeless situation due to the war against Russia. The bank makes 50 percent of its profits in Russia, which has made it the target of harsh US threats. Simultaneously, Russia is threatening it with expropriation if it gives in to western pressure to impose sanctions.

Meanwhile, the European Green Deal never warmed the hearts of Austrian industrialists. Austrian industry is entirely geared towards fossil fuels, as Sebastian Kurz has already made clear. Former Chancellor Nehammer, for example, opposed the EU’s attempt to ban combustion engines. The requirements of the EU Supply Chain Act and the increasing financial burdens imposed by carbon taxes have also met with hostility from industrialists.

As we stated before the parliamentary elections: “Austria's schizophrenia between political integration in the West and the strong profit interests of red-white-red financial capital in the East makes Austria a geopolitical ‘tipping candidate’. An FPÖ-ÖVP government would mean a political shift in this direction.” (Der Funke 226, 30 August 2020)

With the collapse of the three-way coalition talks, this contradiction has now come to a head. The entire liberal political establishment – from Van der Bellen, to the editorial boards of all the newspapers, to the NGOs and political parties – vehemently opposed any open debate on the world situation.

The Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) is also in the camp of western imperialism and is aggressively politically supporting the sanctions against Russia. The dominant section of the ÖVP, led by former chancellor Nehammer, had also positioned itself in this way. The FPÖ, on the other hand, sees the EU as a mere ‘European Economic Area’. They do not regard it, as the liberals, social democrats, the KPÖ leadership and a part of the ÖVP do, as a central power for which one must completely abandon the more immediate interests of Austrian capital.

Deindustrialisation and the erosion of Austria’s capital base, all in the interests of Washington and its proxies in Brussels, cannot be the programme of Austrian big business. A Kickl chancellorship would try to form a bloc of regional capitalist interests in Brussels, alongside Orban in Hungary and Fico in Slovakia. Of course, this is also entirely in the interests of Austrian capitalists! The fact is that the FPÖ is articulating the material interests of the capitalists better than the likes of NEOS and the divided ÖVP, thus facilitating the quick and quietly executed turn of the ÖVP towards Kickl’s party.

There will be no going back to the ‘good old days’ when the capitalists in this country did good business with everyone. The USA will insist on sanctions against Russia, especially in the area of fossil fuels – Kickl cannot undo that. But in order not to further undermine the capitalists' ability to make profits in Austria, a more accentuated nationalist policy is on the order of the day in the boardrooms. Despite all the contradictions, this suggests that the ÖVP will try to make Kickl chancellor.

The working class is to bleed

Ultimately, the strongest lever for stabilising the falling profits of the capitalists is to increase the exploitation of workers. All bourgeois parties agree on this, and neither the Social Democrats nor the KPÖ have a relevant political alternative.

What the coalition talks have thus far shown us underlines this. The central sticking point was the financing of the state, i.e. the restructuring of the budget. The negotiators agreed on a restructuring requirement of €17.6 billion by 2029.

“We stand for relief and not for a burden. Ultimately, that was the point where it didn't work out” said Stocker, explaining the end of the negotiations. This is a blatant lie; the truth is that the ÖVP and NEOS were planning a massive austerity package for the masses, with cuts, massive tax rises, and an increase in the retirement age.

The social-democratic negotiators remained at the table until the very end, solely to prettify this brutal austerity package with a “fair contribution from the wealthy”. “Children's rights”, “combating inflation” and “rights for workers” were obviously never on the agenda – that was pure election rhetoric. What was not up for debate at all were the racist attacks against migrants that all parties agreed upon. On this, the SPÖ had capitulated even before the elections.

The SPÖ merely insisted that 20 percent of the financial burden should be borne by the wealthy – and was apparently willing to negotiate on that point. This is purely symbolic politics, but even that was too much for the bourgeois as represented by NEOS and ÖVP. They want the workers, the elderly and the sick to bear the full cost of the crisis of their system. And the leaders of social democracy throw red roses at Nehammer even after his departure. What a disgrace!

Class struggle!

This capitulation shows the crisis in the labour movement. What the SPÖ has offered in recent years, months and days has not secured the living standards of the working class, but has disarmed it. The crisis of capitalism requires a much more radical programme and the will to respond with class struggle methods to the attacks of the ruling class and their parties.

The Revolutionary Communist Party (RKP) represents the most politically advanced elements in the workers‘ movement / Image: RKP

In view of the divisions and splits within the bourgeois parties, it would be possible even now to prevent the formation of the bourgeois bloc. But only if the SPÖ and the trade unions launched a mass campaign in the workplaces and amongst the youth which could bring the movement to the streets.

Above all, the working class must understand that behind the aggression of the bourgeois parties is the capitalist system itself, which demands cuts. This situation of acute economic and social crisis does not allow for the strategy of simply waiting to elect a new parliament in five years. But this is exactly what the leadership of the SPÖ and KPÖ are aiming for.

Those who understand the need to fight against this dire situation must prepare and organise the class struggle now. The working class needs leaders and parties that tell the truth, that do not gloss over the increasing deterioration of living standards as ‘the best of all compromises’, or that bake pizzas and distribute handouts (as the KPÖ is proud to practice) instead of taking the class struggle to the bosses.

Company closures and mass layoffs can be prevented if workforces stand up and force their organisations to take this path. Austerity and attacks on democratic rights can be fought through the class struggle!

The Revolutionary Communist Party (RKP) represents the most politically advanced elements in the workers‘ movement. We invite all class warriors who are ready for battle to discuss with us. The coming years will completely rearrange the political conditions in the workers’ movement. We stand for winning the majority of our class to a revolutionary, communist programme, and thus leading it to overcome capitalist barbarism once and for all! Join us in this struggle.