**A majority of the Austrian population supports Vienna’s refusal to accept Romania and Bulgaria’s Schengen membership, with most supporters being voters of the ruling conservative OeVP and the nationalist FPOe party, an opinion poll quoted by Austrian media on Sunday revealed.**
Thus, 52 percent of those surveyed said they approved of the decision to block Romania and Bulgaria from Schengen, while 34 percent said they disagreed.
**The veto for Schengen is mostly approved by OeVP and FPOe voters.**
On the other hand, the poll confirms that the nationalists of the Freedom Party (FPOe) enjoy the highest popularity and have overtaken the traditional Austrian parties. Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservatives are only in third place in voter preference. With 26 percent, the Freedom Party is in first place, ahead of the SPOe social democrats with 24 percent and the OeVP conservatives with 22 percent.
NEOS, a liberal-leaning party relatively new to the Austrian political landscape, and the Greens, who are minority partners in government, are tied for fourth place with 11 percent.
Currently, the extremist MFG party, which unites anti-vaccinationists and conspiracy theorists, would have a share of three percent and thus miss out on entry into the National Council (the lower house of the Austrian parliament).
According to the poll, the FPOe’s upward trend continues, while the SPOe has dropped to second place. The reason for this is probably the wavering attitude on asylum and Schengen issues. The last time the SPOe ranked below 25 percent was in the summer of 2021, the polling institution says.
**Who threatens the Austrian Chancellor’s seat**
If an election were held for the post of chancellor, Karl Nehammer would hold on to the lead with a 30 percent approval rating, ranking ahead of FPOe leader Herbert Kickl, who is polling at 25 percent. SPOe leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner trailed Kickl for the first time since October 2021, with 22 percent of voting intentions. Close behind are NEOS leader Meinl-Reisinger (12 percent) and his Green counterpart, current Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler (10 percent).
But if the governor of Burgenland, the Social Democrat Hans Peter Doskozil, were to run for chancellor, the situation would be different. In that case, Doskozil would be in first place with 31 percent of the vote, followed by incumbent Chancellor Karl Nehammer (25 percent) and Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl (21 percent). According to the sociological survey, Doskozil, as the Social Democrats’ candidate for chancellor, would make up for the losses that the centre-left has suffered among centrist voters who have moved to the right, as well as among undecided voters.
In the Schengen debate, the Austrian Social Democrats have been hesitant, with some of the party’s top politicians criticising the government, while party leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner agreed to block Romania and Bulgaria. Doskozil also criticised the interior minister, but for not being firm enough and calling for more effective border controls in Bulgaria. As for the Greens, who are in government, they spoke out against blocking decisions at EU level.
The “Austria Trends” poll was conducted by the “Peter Hajek” institute on behalf of the APA news agency and ATV TV. 800 people aged over 16 were interviewed online and by telephone between 12 and 15 December, with a margin of error of plus/minus 3.5 percent.
Bunch of idiots.
Answering a poll is easy. Being able to answer why the vote was made is the hard part because people who vote usually knows nothing about the issue.
This will add gasoline to the extremist party in Romania.
A well. The Romanian European dream might as well be lit on fire and ask the Americans if they might like some tax exemptions.
Well, big surprise. What the OVP leadership did was to use the sentiments that exist in a large number of Austrians regarding how they see easterners. Especially Romanians and Bulgarians who have a negative image in many EU countries. This is, after all a move aimed that around a majority of voters find it appealling. The decision may have come from a tiny clique of OVP leaders but the move did not come out of nowere.
As for those who argue that OVP will change its course after the January elections in Lower Austria… why would OVP change a popular policy?
As a Romanian, I find this disheartening and upseting. We are after all seen as second class Europeans and the recent political moves are only the efect of a wider popular sentiment. Umfortunately we are (one of) the scapegoats for populists and we can only dream that western leftists will defend us like they defend those migrants.
Meanwhile we are the target while Austrians do not beat an eye about Hungary and Serbia. At a past comment I wished Austria to drown in migrants. With their logic of shifting the blame they will manage to do that.
The negative downside for us will be a rise in far right sentiment. At least I hope the average guy will keep the idea of a boycott and stop using Austrian companies. Our ambassador in Austria will, also hopefully, have a very long vacation.
A country full of xenophobes !
As an austrian, i apologize for the xenophobic idiots in my country :/
Yes austrian only likes our goods, wood gas not the people,
And some of them said the large majority is against the veto and we are stupid thinking austrians have something against us… seems we were right.
But all those Austrians on r/Europe were saying it’s just a tiny minority in the government /s
From what I’ve heard, the Austrians (especially Vianese) look down on the rest of Europe. Maybe they like the Swiss, but that’s it.
Majority of Austrians are Idiots… source… I live there!
Shocking!! The good part is that history shows that these facist/xenophobic people are doomed. Nothing good come out of it. In fact this is a symptom of a disease. I can only hope that Romania, EU and USA will be able to remove this cancerous tumor. Rusia and Austria are both tumors and require to be removed. I’m not concerned, at least now we have a diagnosis, now we need a treatment.
So much for it’s the government fault.
In a democratic society governments don’t just end up in power without popular support.
“Majority thinks Romanians are inferior race, lower than Austrians, poll finds.”
Why people are surprised?🤣
Everyone knows from where came a certain person
I’m surprised by this. I would have guessed maybe 30-40 support. Even then, in my bubble it’s maybe 20% support.
The reasoning for the support, that I see anyway, has more to do with a gesture towards a need to strengthen the EU’s external borders. I don’t disagree with that but I don’t see why that equates to this action at the cost of the Romanian and Bulgarian people.
17 comments
**A majority of the Austrian population supports Vienna’s refusal to accept Romania and Bulgaria’s Schengen membership, with most supporters being voters of the ruling conservative OeVP and the nationalist FPOe party, an opinion poll quoted by Austrian media on Sunday revealed.**
Thus, 52 percent of those surveyed said they approved of the decision to block Romania and Bulgaria from Schengen, while 34 percent said they disagreed.
**The veto for Schengen is mostly approved by OeVP and FPOe voters.**
On the other hand, the poll confirms that the nationalists of the Freedom Party (FPOe) enjoy the highest popularity and have overtaken the traditional Austrian parties. Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservatives are only in third place in voter preference. With 26 percent, the Freedom Party is in first place, ahead of the SPOe social democrats with 24 percent and the OeVP conservatives with 22 percent.
NEOS, a liberal-leaning party relatively new to the Austrian political landscape, and the Greens, who are minority partners in government, are tied for fourth place with 11 percent.
Currently, the extremist MFG party, which unites anti-vaccinationists and conspiracy theorists, would have a share of three percent and thus miss out on entry into the National Council (the lower house of the Austrian parliament).
According to the poll, the FPOe’s upward trend continues, while the SPOe has dropped to second place. The reason for this is probably the wavering attitude on asylum and Schengen issues. The last time the SPOe ranked below 25 percent was in the summer of 2021, the polling institution says.
**Who threatens the Austrian Chancellor’s seat**
If an election were held for the post of chancellor, Karl Nehammer would hold on to the lead with a 30 percent approval rating, ranking ahead of FPOe leader Herbert Kickl, who is polling at 25 percent. SPOe leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner trailed Kickl for the first time since October 2021, with 22 percent of voting intentions. Close behind are NEOS leader Meinl-Reisinger (12 percent) and his Green counterpart, current Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler (10 percent).
But if the governor of Burgenland, the Social Democrat Hans Peter Doskozil, were to run for chancellor, the situation would be different. In that case, Doskozil would be in first place with 31 percent of the vote, followed by incumbent Chancellor Karl Nehammer (25 percent) and Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl (21 percent). According to the sociological survey, Doskozil, as the Social Democrats’ candidate for chancellor, would make up for the losses that the centre-left has suffered among centrist voters who have moved to the right, as well as among undecided voters.
In the Schengen debate, the Austrian Social Democrats have been hesitant, with some of the party’s top politicians criticising the government, while party leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner agreed to block Romania and Bulgaria. Doskozil also criticised the interior minister, but for not being firm enough and calling for more effective border controls in Bulgaria. As for the Greens, who are in government, they spoke out against blocking decisions at EU level.
The “Austria Trends” poll was conducted by the “Peter Hajek” institute on behalf of the APA news agency and ATV TV. 800 people aged over 16 were interviewed online and by telephone between 12 and 15 December, with a margin of error of plus/minus 3.5 percent.
Bunch of idiots.
Answering a poll is easy. Being able to answer why the vote was made is the hard part because people who vote usually knows nothing about the issue.
This will add gasoline to the extremist party in Romania.
A well. The Romanian European dream might as well be lit on fire and ask the Americans if they might like some tax exemptions.
Well, big surprise. What the OVP leadership did was to use the sentiments that exist in a large number of Austrians regarding how they see easterners. Especially Romanians and Bulgarians who have a negative image in many EU countries. This is, after all a move aimed that around a majority of voters find it appealling. The decision may have come from a tiny clique of OVP leaders but the move did not come out of nowere.
As for those who argue that OVP will change its course after the January elections in Lower Austria… why would OVP change a popular policy?
As a Romanian, I find this disheartening and upseting. We are after all seen as second class Europeans and the recent political moves are only the efect of a wider popular sentiment. Umfortunately we are (one of) the scapegoats for populists and we can only dream that western leftists will defend us like they defend those migrants.
Meanwhile we are the target while Austrians do not beat an eye about Hungary and Serbia. At a past comment I wished Austria to drown in migrants. With their logic of shifting the blame they will manage to do that.
The negative downside for us will be a rise in far right sentiment. At least I hope the average guy will keep the idea of a boycott and stop using Austrian companies. Our ambassador in Austria will, also hopefully, have a very long vacation.
A country full of xenophobes !
As an austrian, i apologize for the xenophobic idiots in my country :/
Yes austrian only likes our goods, wood gas not the people,
And some of them said the large majority is against the veto and we are stupid thinking austrians have something against us… seems we were right.
But all those Austrians on r/Europe were saying it’s just a tiny minority in the government /s
From what I’ve heard, the Austrians (especially Vianese) look down on the rest of Europe. Maybe they like the Swiss, but that’s it.
Majority of Austrians are Idiots… source… I live there!
Shocking!! The good part is that history shows that these facist/xenophobic people are doomed. Nothing good come out of it. In fact this is a symptom of a disease. I can only hope that Romania, EU and USA will be able to remove this cancerous tumor. Rusia and Austria are both tumors and require to be removed. I’m not concerned, at least now we have a diagnosis, now we need a treatment.
So much for it’s the government fault.
In a democratic society governments don’t just end up in power without popular support.
“Majority thinks Romanians are inferior race, lower than Austrians, poll finds.”
Why people are surprised?🤣
Everyone knows from where came a certain person
I’m surprised by this. I would have guessed maybe 30-40 support. Even then, in my bubble it’s maybe 20% support.
The reasoning for the support, that I see anyway, has more to do with a gesture towards a need to strengthen the EU’s external borders. I don’t disagree with that but I don’t see why that equates to this action at the cost of the Romanian and Bulgarian people.