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Interesting to note that Spain, Portugal & Germany, countries with a long and famous history of right-wing dictatorships, are some of the countries that fare be

Interesting to note that Spain, Portugal & Germany, countries with a long and famous history of right-wing dictatorships, are some of the countries that fare best. And Italy, also with a similar history, is seeing its right-wing party support go lower on each election. Only Britain and Czech Republic fare similarly well. Although me being Spanish I can say that while we may not have any party in congress "openly extreme right" (nazi like etc), our Partido Popular, one of our top 2 parties and currently in power, is definitely right wing and a direct descendant of franquism (dictatorship), since many of the top dogs in the party were ministers with Franco himself. In other words, here in Spain the right wing successfully camouflaged itself as democrat as to apparently mislead anyone that we don't have a problem here, when we actually do. Maybe the situation in Italy and Portugal is the same, I don't know. I'm also surprised to find out that while Golden Dawn's rise in Greece was all over the media as "the new rise of nazism etc", other countries have MUCH higher rates of right wing parties and nobody seems to care.

willvarfar 10y ago
Austria had Hitler. Now they have a party that has - presumably deliberately - making subtle links back to those days e.g. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36342362 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36342362
- stdclass 10y ago
  And thank god we dodged that bullet yesterday! It was a close call though - 50,3% to 49,7% (edited)
  - mherrmann 10y ago
    You mean 50,3% to 49,7% ;)
  - ck2 10y ago
    Two questions: 1. what percentage of the population turns out to vote in Austria? 2. what level of education is most common in Austria? I have a hard time believing well educated people turn out in droves to vote for the hard right - I mean sure, there is always a percentage and many fiscally conservative people come from money so they tend to be educated, but as I understand it, that's not what they were voting for in Austria, they were basically voting for social conservatism which is anti-immigration, etc. Then again that percentage is pretty much what the US faces in every Red vs Blue presidential election in the past half-century.
    - stdclass 10y ago
      1. There are 6.382.507 eligible voters, of which 4.643.154 have voted, thats 72,7%. [1] 2. The ORF did a survey, where it turned out, that 76% of people who have an education of a-level or higher voted for the left-wing candiate. Only 38% of the people with education less than a-level voted for the left-wing candiate. [2] [1] http://wahl16.bmi.gv.at/ http://wahl16.bmi.gv.at/ [2] https://www.facebook.com/ZeitimBild/photos/a.381568636877.161891.182146851877/10154093891311878/ https://www.facebook.com/ZeitimBild/photos/a.381568636877.16...
      - ck2 10y ago
        8 million population so 50% of all people in Austria vote surprisingly almost the same as the last USA presidential election (numbers are far lower for other kinds of votes)
        Erwin 10y ago
        The voting percentages are always calculated based on eligible voters, not total population. The 2012 presidential election had 54.9% of the American votes turned up to reelect Obama: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_the_United_States_presidential_elections https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_the_United_St...
    - return0 10y ago
      Keep in mind that in EU countries, people may often vote more "emotionally" than logically. People know that EU and NATO act as a shield, so whichever government is in control , there will always be a level of "protection" from crazy endeavors. (e.g. look how people vote in greece). I am certain that, without EU or NATO, people would think twice about where they vote.
      - ck2 10y ago
        It's not just the EU, in the US Trump enjoys a huge "emotional" support as people vote from what they "feel" has been happening to the country vs reality. They get double their emotional return because they feel like he also thinks with his emotions, aka "gut feeling" about everything instead of actually being educated about it. In the US, middle-class and low-income are NOTORIOUS for voting against themselves, election after election after election, putting right-wing policy in place that basically crushes them slowly. Kansas is a textbook study of the final outcome of such behavior. I call it "f\\k your neighbor voting" because people don't see it as voting against themselves at all but rather they hate their neighbors so much they think these policies will make others suffer and that makes them satisfied.
  - return0 10y ago
    I don't think nearly 50% vote means you dodged any bullets. I wonder if you think this was due to a knee-jerk reaction to the recent immigration crisis , or something that you believe will continue after the next election.
return0 10y ago
> Spain, Portugal They do not fare very well though, right? the problem with southern europe countries is corruption i believe. Dictatorships lowered the extent of corruption because they limit it to a very small part of the population. The problem is not democracy, but the lack of other checks and balances that make up a well-functioning state. Also Germany went through economic miracles under democratic governments. Oddly i am not worried by the rise of far-right anti-immigration parties. They attract the "vote of demonstration", but i don't bevieve the general public really wants to go through the 1930s again.

willvarfar 10y ago

Austria had Hitler. Now they have a party that has - presumably deliberately - making subtle links back to those days e.g. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36342362 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36342362

stdclass 10y ago
And thank god we dodged that bullet yesterday! It was a close call though - 50,3% to 49,7% (edited)
- mherrmann 10y ago
  You mean 50,3% to 49,7% ;)
- ck2 10y ago
  Two questions: 1. what percentage of the population turns out to vote in Austria? 2. what level of education is most common in Austria? I have a hard time believing well educated people turn out in droves to vote for the hard right - I mean sure, there is always a percentage and many fiscally conservative people come from money so they tend to be educated, but as I understand it, that's not what they were voting for in Austria, they were basically voting for social conservatism which is anti-immigration, etc. Then again that percentage is pretty much what the US faces in every Red vs Blue presidential election in the past half-century.
  - stdclass 10y ago
    1. There are 6.382.507 eligible voters, of which 4.643.154 have voted, thats 72,7%. [1] 2. The ORF did a survey, where it turned out, that 76% of people who have an education of a-level or higher voted for the left-wing candiate. Only 38% of the people with education less than a-level voted for the left-wing candiate. [2] [1] http://wahl16.bmi.gv.at/ http://wahl16.bmi.gv.at/ [2] https://www.facebook.com/ZeitimBild/photos/a.381568636877.161891.182146851877/10154093891311878/ https://www.facebook.com/ZeitimBild/photos/a.381568636877.16...
    - ck2 10y ago
      8 million population so 50% of all people in Austria vote surprisingly almost the same as the last USA presidential election (numbers are far lower for other kinds of votes)
      - Erwin 10y ago
        The voting percentages are always calculated based on eligible voters, not total population. The 2012 presidential election had 54.9% of the American votes turned up to reelect Obama: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_the_United_States_presidential_elections https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_the_United_St...
  - return0 10y ago
    Keep in mind that in EU countries, people may often vote more "emotionally" than logically. People know that EU and NATO act as a shield, so whichever government is in control , there will always be a level of "protection" from crazy endeavors. (e.g. look how people vote in greece). I am certain that, without EU or NATO, people would think twice about where they vote.
    - ck2 10y ago
      It's not just the EU, in the US Trump enjoys a huge "emotional" support as people vote from what they "feel" has been happening to the country vs reality. They get double their emotional return because they feel like he also thinks with his emotions, aka "gut feeling" about everything instead of actually being educated about it. In the US, middle-class and low-income are NOTORIOUS for voting against themselves, election after election after election, putting right-wing policy in place that basically crushes them slowly. Kansas is a textbook study of the final outcome of such behavior. I call it "f\\k your neighbor voting" because people don't see it as voting against themselves at all but rather they hate their neighbors so much they think these policies will make others suffer and that makes them satisfied.
- return0 10y ago
  I don't think nearly 50% vote means you dodged any bullets. I wonder if you think this was due to a knee-jerk reaction to the recent immigration crisis , or something that you believe will continue after the next election.

return0 10y ago

> Spain, Portugal They do not fare very well though, right? the problem with southern europe countries is corruption i believe. Dictatorships lowered the extent of corruption because they limit it to a very small part of the population. The problem is not democracy, but the lack of other checks and balances that make up a well-functioning state. Also Germany went through economic miracles under democratic governments. Oddly i am not worried by the rise of far-right anti-immigration parties. They attract the "vote of demonstration", but i don't bevieve the general public really wants to go through the 1930s again.