Today (Sunday 15th
Oct 2o17), Austrians are going to the polls to vote for the country’s National
Council, the main legislative body. All 183 seats are up for grabs. A
31-year-old Austrian politician will become the world's youngest leader after
pledging to cut all benefits for foreigners, polls suggest. Back home, in our Nation, the current Lok Sabha is the second oldest house
of independent India; the first was the previous Lok Sabha (15th). The youngest
MP in the current House is 28, and the oldest MP is 88. The median age of MPs
is 58, that is half of the MPs are 58 years and above.
The Austrian
government is taking its case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over
Germany's plans to introduce charges to use its motorways and highways from
2019. Under the plans drivers would be charged up to £117 (€130) per year to
use its roads. Vienna believes the move contravenes European Union (EU) law
because although everyone will have to pay, German motorists will get a refund
via a reduction in their vehicle tax.
Austria also reportedly is to file a lawsuit against the European
Union's approval of the Russian-financed expansion of a nuclear plant in
Hungary.
Austria is a
federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people[2] in
Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and
Liechtenstein to the west. The majority
of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native
language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language.
The origins of
modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, when the vast
majority of the country was a part of the Holy Roman Empire. Among the many
wars, Napoleonic invasions weakened the
power of the Emperor in the north of Germany, but in the south, and in
non-German areas of the Empire, the Emperor and Catholicism maintained control.
During the 1914 July Crisis that followed the assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand of Austria on June 28, Austria-Hungary, emboldened by a pledge of
German support, on July 28 declared war on Serbia because that country had not
fully complied with an Austrian ultimatum. Austria was thus the first to go to
war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I.
After the collapse
of the Habsburg (Austro-Hungarian) Empire in 1918 at the end of World War I,
Austria adopted and used the name the Republic of German-Austria
(Deutschösterreich), in an attempt at union with Germany, but this was
forbidden under the treaties the Treaty of Versailles and Treaty of
Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919). The name was changed to Austria (Österreich) and
shortly afterwards The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919. Today,
Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal
states. The capital and largest city, is Vienna.
Media reports
suggest that Conservative Sebastian Kurz, 31, is set to take power and form an
alliance with the far-right. As well as
his pledge on payouts to migrants, he wants to slash Austria's red tape and
keep the EU out of national affairs. It would be a fresh headache for Brussels
as it struggles with Brexit and the rise of nationalism in Germany, Hungary,
Poland and elsewhere. But all signs indicate that Austrians want to swap the
gridlocked centrist rule for a more hardline government for the first time in a decade following an influx
of asylum seekers.
MailOnline reports
that today Mr Kurz was pictured voting in the Austrian capital Vienna alongside
his girlfriend Susanne Thier - a finance ministry worker who he met at the age
of 18. According to exit polls, the
People's Party, rebranded by 'whizz-kid' Kurz as a 'movement', is forecast to
reap more than 30 percent of the vote with pledges to go tough on migrants and
easy on taxes. The eurosceptic Freedom
Party is battling for second place with the beleaguered Social Democrats of
incumbent Chancellor Christian Kern. Kurz - who as new People's Party leader
forced the snap vote in May by ending the coalition with Kern - has yanked his
party to the right and is expected to seek a coalition with the far-right.
Founded by ex-Nazis
in the 1950s, the Freedom Party almost won the presidency last year and topped
opinion polls in the midst of Europe's migrant crisis. Some 6.4 million people
are eligible to vote in the closely-watched ballot which is expected to be a
tight race. Political analysts over
there state that a right-wing government
could turn Austria into a tricky partner for the EU
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
15th Oct
2017 @ 11.10 pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment