Austria

Alexander Van der Bellen (left) and Norbert Hofer during a joint appearance on Nov. 26th.

WITH THE RE-RUN ELECTION ONLY 5 DAYS AWAY ON SUNDAY, DEC. 4TH, Norbert Hofer appears to be holding his lead over Alexander Van der Bellen. In some polls, Hofer is at 52% to VdB's 48%.

According to bookmaker Paddy Power as of November 23, Hofer’s odds of becoming the next Austrian President were 4/9; Mr Van der Bellen was just behind him with odds of 13/8 .

It is thought that Mr Hofer has been given a boost by Donald Trump’s populist victory in America and the anti-establishment vote for Brexit in the UK. If he triumphs, he will be seen as Europe’s first “far-right” leader to be elected since the end of the Second World War. Hofer correctly rejects the term “far-right” and says he and his party are mainstream because they are in alighnment with the Austrian people. His party strongly opposes the “Islamisation of Europe” and has proposed a full ban on wearing the burka in public. The other parties are left, with the Green Party, which Van der Bellen led for 10 years, being a far-left party.

CEO of Elco, Hans-Jörg Aerni, says he would also serve Austria with his products

By Carolyn Yeager

A SWISS PRINTING COMPANY, ELCO, HAS SAID IT CAN PRODUCE the absentee voting envelopes for the Austrian presidential election in 24 hours!

So what is it with the Social Democrat/Peoples Party coalition government deciding it needs a two-month delay to deal with the faulty envelopes for the repeat run-off election scheduled for October 2^nd – still over 2 weeks away. Doesn't this make the whole hulabaloo over having to re-arrange the voting schedule look ridiculous?

FPÖ General Secretary Herbert Kickl calls for reform of the postal vote in Austria.

NORBERT HOFER WAS FAVORED TO WIN THE OCTOBER 2ND PRESIDENTAL RUNOFF ELECTION according to polling results, when a problem arose with the glue on the mail-in envelopes. The glue was defective! The envelopes came open by themselves, making them invalid. This under the government leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ).

What to do? Postpone the election for two more months, until December 4, of course, giving them time to turn things around! As Heinz-Christian Strache of Hofer's party, the Freedom Party (FPÖ), has been asking: "Has Austria become a banana republic?" Does it take two months to prepare new postal voting cards in a country as small as Austria? Do they think that by December people will be distracted with the winter holidays, including Christmas, and forget to vote? Or perhaps a big snowstorm will hamper the voting in the rural areas where the FPÖ is strong.

ANIMAL LOVER NORBERT HOFER ENDED HIS VACATION ON SUNDAY by attending a poultry festival in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia. [cackle, cackle]

But on Saturday, he was interviewed by OE24 and without hesitation laid out his ideas.

His party, the Freedom Party of Austria - FPÖ - has insisted it is not for an Öxit – that is, Austria leaving the European Union. 

Hofer makes it clear there are two conditions under which he would call for Austria to do just that, however. One, if Turkey becomes a member of the EU, and two, if the EU becomes too centralized - if contracts are made in which the member states have no influence.

Austria's highest court on Friday ordered a rerun of the country's presidential election, giving Norbert Hofer (FPÖ - left) a second chance at the office after his narrow loss last month.

The decision was unprecedented in Austria's post-war history and beyond, appearing to be the first time that a nationwide election has been annulled and a repeat vote called in any European Union country.

Norbert Hofer (left) and Alexander Van der Bellen share the stage during the Austrian Presidential election campaign in May.

GOOD NEWS! A CHALLENGE TO THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RUNOFF, in which Alexander Van der Bellen was delcared the winner, was filed today by Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Heinz-Christian Strache,

As you recall, it was the postal ballots that pushed former leader of the Green Party, Van der Bellen - who ran as an independent - over the line to defeat FPÖ candidate Norbert Hofer. The margin of victory was under 1 percentage point, or roughly 31,000 votes.

Strache filed an official challenge at the Constitution Court, saying “Without these glitches, irregularities and breaking of laws, Hofer could have become president. I think a re-election is very realistic."

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copyright 2014 Wilhelm Wenger and Carolyn Yeager
Translated from the German by Carlos Whitlock Porter

First, an account of the fall of Sevastopol and the loss of Ukraine by the end of June 1944, assembled by Willy Wenger. The letters that follow, the last ones Leopold Wenger wrote to his family, spanned August '44 to January '45. Poldi had been in Ukraine since November 1943, relocating only slowly westward, but now his Group begins to move around, first to Poland, finally closer to Vienna.
 

Sevastopol Falls

In six to eight weeks, the situation looked quite different. The Allies had landed in Normandy. On 5 May, the 2nd [Russian] Guard Army went on the offensive on the west side of Sevastopol. On 7 May, the [Soviet] 51st Army and Coastal Army expanded their offensives to Balaklava and conquered the crest of the Sapun mountains, with which the German commanders, two years before, had sealed the [fate of the] siege. The German commanders now abandoned their lines all the way to Inkerman, where they intended to regroup for a counterattack, after gaining the relative security of the commanding mountain heights. The situation of the defenders was desperate. One German division after the other gave way. On 8 May, General Schörner issued an order to the Navy and Luftwaffe to make the best of a bad job. On 9 May, the Soviets liberated Sevastopol. A single German unit fought a rearguard action for four days on the Kherson peninsula to permit the embarkation of survivors.

The leader of the Social Democrat's (SPÖ) youth wing in Graz has been convicted of lying and libel after he took a photo of dancing supporters at a far right Freedom party rally which he claimed showed them making a Hitler salute.

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The photo at right taken by Sebastian Pay, who deliberately and falsely  protrayed it to newspapers as students giving the "Nazi" salute.

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A court in Graz convicted Sebastian Pay of releasing a photo knowing that it would give the wrong impression, and it gave him a six-month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay a 1,400 Euro fine.

The picture was widely republished in Austrian media in advance of the recent general election as a sign that the party had a growing number of neo-Nazi supporters, despite the fact that the freedom party (FPÖ)  a day later had managed to provide a video showing that the man and the others around him had been dancing to the music and not making Hitler salutes.

From Leopold Wenger's Trip Diary

The Great Ride to Nuremberg

for the N-S Party Convention of 1937

copyright 2013 Wilhelm Wenger and Carolyn Yeager 

Translated from the German by Wilfried Heink

Sunday, August 29, 1937. My buddy Franz and I left Leoben at 6am. When passing the train station I suddenly discovered that I had left my canteen, full of tea, at home. I had no choice but to turn back.

We then continued. It was still cold, and also foggy; our clothes were soon damp. But the fog lifted and at Mauten we stopped for breakfast. Then a headwind picked up, making travel up the Schober Pass difficult. At the top we stopped at a farm to drink some milk; Franz encountered a little mishap but at 11:30 we arrived in Trieben. We did not stop, passed the Wörschach airport and at noon we were already passed Steinach. We rode through an open forest; later in open country with the sun beating down and stopped at an Inn in Diemlern for lunch. The ride from then on was boring, up to Gröbming when I noticed that the houses were different, almost flat roofs with boulders on them. We had climbed quite a ways up and now traveled downhill, the road condition changing. Passing Haus, we had our first glimpse of the Dachstein, with the peak hidden in clouds. At 4pm we arrived in Schladming; the town was celebrating the completion of a new church tower and we had problems getting through the crowds. Uphill from there, and at 4:30 we passed the border between Styria and Salzburg. We already had the Mandling pass behind us.

In half an hour we made it to Radstatt, having to push our bikes up a hill along the way. We looked for the hostel, found it outside the town and registered at 5:30. The pool was a welcome addition and in the evening a youth from Vienna joined us.

From Leopold Wenger's Trip Diary

Out and About on the Bicycle

1936-1937

copyright 2013 Wilhelm Wenger and Carolyn Yeager 
Translated from the German by Wilfried Heink 

Leopold Wenger was born on Nov. 19, 1921; in July 1936 when his first diary-recorded bike trip began, he was only 14 years old. By the time of the rest of the trips recorded here (all of which took place before the annexation of Austria to Germany), he was 15 years old. Quite a responsible, resiliant, hardy and adventurous young National-Socialist "Hitler Youth" he was, who later became a valiant defender of the Reich.  My thanks to Willy Wenger for sending these diary entries to me – along with the photographs taken by 'Poldi (called Bibi by family) – and to Wilfried Heink for translating it from the German original – a large undertaking.

While this may not interest everyone, I believe it is of great value for comparing our youth of that time with our youth of today. -cy

P.S. On 6-5-2016 I linked the images to the file view, so just click on them for a larger view.

The Salzburg Journey, May 5-8, 1936

Sunday, July 5, 1936. We were to leave Leoben at 5:30, but I slept in and was picked up by Prommer and Horvat; we left Leoben at 5:45. We traveled via Edling to Seitz. Between Kammern and Mauten, we had to stop for the first time, my canteen/flask, fastened to my rucksack had slipped between the frame of my bike and the hind wheel during a descent. It acted as a brake, and the felt encasing was severely damaged.