tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66383672009-11-24T00:17:54.470+01:00a weblog from ViennaGeorgnoreply@blogger.comBlogger292125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1159815084920204422006-10-02T20:32:00.000+02:002006-10-02T20:51:24.950+02:00

Some early thoughts on the meaning of yesterday's election result in Austria (socialdemocrats 35,7%, conservatives 34,2%, far-right FPÖ 11,2%, Greens 10,5%, far-right BZÖ 4,2%, big coalition socialdemocrats-conservatives certain due to lack of arithmetically possible and politically thinkable alternatives):There is no internationally interesting angle to this result.The return of the big

Georgnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1150491901732534482006-06-16T21:41:00.000+02:002006-06-16T23:54:13.726+02:00

Something must be horribly wrong, mustn't it, when suddenly both the governing conservatives and even the far-right Haider-BZÖ express sympathies [DE] for the new Green immigration policy that was presented two weeks ago (press agency summary [DE] and 5-page press-materials [DE]). Not so fast: for the right of the political spectrum, embracing pragmatic Green proposals is a well-proven electoral

Georgnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1148067799752339252006-05-19T21:29:00.000+02:002006-05-19T21:43:19.820+02:00

Since I'm posting very little these days, I'm particularly glad to relate these fine local links to any readers who might drop by:Kraehwinkel [DE] is a good leftist political blog, which I found through the much newer, but equally leftist and political schaffnerlos [DE].Much broader contentwise, pretty professional, but simply too good for not linking to it any longer is Andrea Dusl's

Georgnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1142283280403713192006-03-13T21:16:00.001+01:002006-03-14T22:54:24.810+01:00

Pollsters suggest this is the case, as the results of last week's popular petition "Austria, remain free" have just been announced (258,277 votes, or 4.3% of the electorate, more or less as expected).According to one poll, the people who signed the petition in one of the magistrate's offices across the country expressed the following voting preferences in a general election: SPÖ (socialdemocrats)

Georgnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1141937270477783172006-03-09T21:31:00.000+01:002006-03-09T21:47:50.530+01:00

Carl Bildt (the conservative Swedish ex-PM): Simplistic Xenophobia in AustriaThere are many strange aspects to the Austrian situation. On the one hand, it's one of the countries where public hostility to European Union enlargement, and in particular to Turkey, is strongest. The two major parties ÖVP and SPÖ are, sorry to say, competing in negativism concerning Turkey. It's only the Greens that

Georgnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1141500133998284352006-03-04T20:17:00.000+01:002006-03-04T20:22:13.996+01:00

At some point during the last thirty years, kindergartens seem to have changed.

Georgnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1138351253525759592006-01-27T09:00:00.000+01:002006-01-27T09:40:53.580+01:00

Happy Birthday, you dead genius. Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution requests more posts on Mozart ('Can too much Mozart make you sick?'), does his own bit, and, surprisingly, inspired me to this. Also check out the Viennese Mozart 2006 campaign, which has a lot of money to spend, but thanks to a smart guy in charge (socialdemocrat mayor Michael Häupl appointed the conservative politician Peter

Georgnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1137853250894558642006-01-21T15:06:00.000+01:002006-01-21T15:20:50.966+01:00

Ibrahim Rugova, the long-time political leader of Albanians in Kosova, has died at age 61 of the lung cancer with which he was diagnosed last September. He was a nationalist and a pacifist.I never arrived at an interpretation of his role and merits in which I could believe with confidence. Was he a pacifist leader of his people inspired by moral values? Or was he a representative of an elite that

Georgnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1132949411725801192005-11-25T20:53:00.000+01:002005-12-28T17:43:17.503+01:00

Dear readers, due to changes in my daily schedule blog posts may appear more irregurlarly in the future. As most of my readers now seem to come here from RSS-aggregators, I hope this will cause no major inconveniences. Other visitors, please consider adding this blog to an aggregator [for example bloglines] to prevent visits to an unchanged page.Also, since occasionally weird stuff has been

Georgnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1132259298130662672005-11-17T20:43:00.000+01:002005-11-17T22:16:43.103+01:00

..in Vienna was the 15th of November. The newly elected Green members of the Vienna city-council had to vote who of them would fulfill which of the more important speaker-roles during the next five years (result here [DE], for insiders). Stage set for a confrontation between the left-wingers [Fundis], who were in the majority, and the moderates [Realos]. Yes, the two camps exist, don't let

Georgnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1131702126991741282005-11-11T10:26:00.000+01:002005-11-11T10:42:07.003+01:00

From the new book by Gene Sperling, who served as National Economic Advisor under Bill Clinton:The Democratic Party should disband if it ever stops being the party that stands by the little guy, leads the fight against racial and economic disadvantage, sticks by working families when times are tough, and takes on those with privilege who don't play by the rules.Yet when the public only hears

Georgnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1131312610818919062005-11-06T21:24:00.000+01:002005-11-06T22:30:10.836+01:00

That was exhausting! Today I participated in the 55. general meeting of the Vienna branch of the Austrian Green party. For seven hours we voted the list of candidates for the next nationwide election in autumn 2006, position after position, with five minute presentation slots plus five minutes for questions for each candidate. The first two places were uncontested, the incumbents got 84% (

Georgnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1130832211023603962005-11-01T08:29:00.000+01:002005-11-01T09:03:31.033+01:00

"The SPD slaughters its chairman by mistake" is how the media describe what happened in Germany yesterday. Franz Müntefering, the seemingly unassailable Schröder-buddy, SPD-chairman, and designated vice-chancellor has said good-bye to the party job (his government-job may be the next to go) after suffering a resounding 14:23 defeat for his candidate Kajo Wasserhövel for the job of

Georgnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1130689387300631832005-10-30T17:15:00.000+01:002005-10-30T17:23:07.356+01:00

A great post by Bjoern Staerk about how the focus of our activities changes from before democracy arrives to once it's established (and sucks); and from before amateur media evolve to once they are here to stay (and suck too).[This link comes with a special dedication to Christian from eDemokratie.ch.]

Georgnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1130319659923171172005-10-26T10:50:00.000+02:002005-10-26T12:24:20.690+02:00

It had escaped me until now, but the ongoing debate over the labour dispute surrounding the activities of a Latvian company in the Swedish town of Vaxholm is instructive. The Latvian company Laval had won a building contract in Vaxholm. It brought its Latvian workers to the site who were paid according to a collective bargaining agreement with a Latvian trade union. This provoked the furor of the

Georgnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1130104501284496812005-10-23T23:41:00.000+02:002005-10-23T23:55:01.330+02:00

23:40 Final result SPÖ 49 (+2.1), ÖVP 18.8 (+2.4), FPÖ 14.9 (-5.3), Greens 14.7 (+2.2), KPÖ 1.5 (+0.8), BZÖ 1.2The TV-discussion was not pretty either. ÖVP trying to signal understanding for a healthy dose of xenophobia. SPÖ soft like butter. The really frustrating thing is that the situation where the Greens had a chance to be an uncontested third nationwide is now over, FPÖ-Strache announced

Georgnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1130083842399901932005-10-23T18:06:00.000+02:002005-10-23T19:54:10.763+02:00

18:10 Those FPÖ-voters lied in the exit-poll, true to their character. Based on a 32% count the projection now looks like this:SPÖ 49%ÖVP 18,6%FPÖ 15,1%Greens 14,7%KPÖ 1,6%BZÖ 1,1% I'm very angry right now. I blame chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and SPÖ-leader Alfred Gusenbauer - the FPÖ has been revived on the anti-Turkey theme set by the two big parties. Thanks a lot.[technical troubles have

Georgnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1130079862204692462005-10-23T17:01:00.000+02:002005-10-23T17:04:22.210+02:00

SPÖ 52%ÖVP 18%Greens 16%FPÖ 11%KPÖ 2%BZÖ 1%surprisingly much for the KPÖ, everything else pretty much as expected. The Greens good, but not as good as I had hoped.

Georgnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1130074259492558222005-10-23T14:53:00.000+02:002005-10-23T15:39:10.646+02:00

15:30 The weather is beautiful. Only bloggers, FPÖ-voters and maybe some SPÖ-voters stay in town on a Sunday like this. Accordingly, first reports [DE] point to a low turnout.At 17:00 CET all polling stations close simultaneously. There will be an exit poll which may be 2-3% off the result, but which might show the trends. The first prediction based on a partial count will come in at 18:00, then

Georgnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1129888558300804312005-10-21T11:34:00.000+02:002005-10-21T14:55:30.286+02:00

Two quotes from unrelated articles in the Economist to make your day: Regarding the increasing importance of intellectual property rights in the ICT industry [article]:“Intellectual property has become more central to the industry,” says Greg Papadopoulos, chief technology officer of Sun Microsystems. “I don't know if that is a function of a mature industry, or simply a confused one.”And there is

Georgnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1129579720345070682005-10-17T21:24:00.000+02:002005-10-17T22:11:20.553+02:00

As the Viennese election campaign - the first political campaign I'm witnessing from inside rather than as a detached observer - has entered its final week, I'm lost in the general frenzy of trying to make sense of all the contradictory opinion polls, trend reports, gossip, and over-generalised anecdotal experiences. I'm pretty clueless about the outcome, which may be unfortunate for a blogger,

Georgnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1129207111153712202005-10-13T14:14:00.000+02:002005-10-13T14:38:31.256+02:00

It is a common topos of Austrian oppositional rhetorics to demand that Austria should become like Sweden (or Scandinavia in general): have the world-best education system and social welfare, while still managing the fastest growth rates among the EU-15. Although I'm myself an admirer of Scandinavian accomplishments in these areas, I am sometimes sceptical as to the chances of relocating Austria

Georgnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1128957087965492882005-10-10T16:20:00.000+02:002005-10-10T17:11:28.070+02:00

Second in the string of three Austrian regional elections this autumn, 240,000 inhabitants of the Burgenland-region yesterday gave an absolute majority to the SPÖ. The figures:SPÖ 52,2% (+5,7)ÖVP 36,3 (+1,0)FPÖ 5,8 (-6,9)Grüne 5,2 (-0,3)Nowadays the FPÖ celebrates results like this, but the Greens had little to smile about. The largest town in Burgenland is the regional capital Eisenstadt, where

Georgnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1128593899668067112005-10-06T12:00:00.000+02:002005-10-06T12:18:19.683+02:00

A readable and very interesting article on the effects of labour market regulation, partly based on a comparison of three French companies with three comparable British counterparts. W. S. Siebert, Labour Market Regulation: Some Comparative Lessons [via Mahalanobis, via Steffen H.]:Our conclusion is that labour market regulation designed to improve working conditions and wages, and strengthen

Georgnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6638367.post-1128499895639801282005-10-05T10:05:00.000+02:002005-10-05T10:30:20.150+02:00

'Heute' is a free newspaper that is distributed on the Vienna underground system. Sadly, on 26 September its editorship was taken over by Eva Dichand, the 32-year old daughter-in-law of Hans Dichand, who is the powerful editor of the unspeakable 'Krone' newspaper, read daily by 3 million Austrians. As you can see from the headline in the screenshot, which is also on the frontpage of today's print

Georgnoreply@blogger.com2