Austria Is Yet Another Case Study in Political Polarization

Americans increasingly alarmed by their country’s political polarization would do well to cast an eye across the Atlantic. One look at Europe, and you’ll see that right now, it’s not just you. This year, several European countries have been riven by political struggles that reveal major rifts—between regions, between social classes, and between cities and their hinterlands—that have thrown longstanding political parties into chaos. The U.K’s Brexit referendum is the most high profile of these, but there’s another candidate currently ringing alarm bells: Austria.

As Austria is rarely a major international player, its politics might seem to qualify as (to quote Chamberlain) “a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing.” Its current quandary is nonetheless a compelling marker of the way the wind seems to be going across Europe. This spring, Austria witnessed one of the most striking presidential elections in recent history, a run-off not between candidates of long-standing parties but between an independent Green, Alexander Van der Bellen, and a representative of the far right, the Freedom Party of Austria’s (FPÖ) Norbert Hofer. Van der Bellen won, but only by a hair’s breadth, meaning that Austria only just missed having Western Europe’s first extreme-right head of state since the death of General Franco.