National Elections in Austria

On Sunday we're gonna have national elections in Austria... There are 7 parties that run for office in all federal states of Austria: the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP, the conservative government party), the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ, a bit less market-oriented than the ÖVP), the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ, right-wing), the Greens (left-liberal), the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ, founded by former members of the FPÖ who formed the government together with the ÖVP in the last few years), the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ, the name says it) and a platform led by former SPÖ politician Hans-Peter Martin. In some states, there are also some other parties, but they have little chances.

Probably the ÖVP, SPÖ, FPÖ and Greens will enter next parliament, while the others will probably fail to pass the 4% margin which is required to gain a seat in parliament. There will also be one seat for the Liberal Forum (LiF, liberal) because they are having an alliance with the SPÖ. It's the first time that something like this has been done in Austria.

I guess the ÖVP will remain the strongest party and Wolfgang Schüssel will stay Chancellor. However, his coalition partner will change as I doubt the BZÖ will gain a seat in parliament (and if they do, it won't be enough to form a stable government). The big question is whether he will form a government with the SPÖ, Greens or FPÖ. The order of the parties I mentioned corresponds to the probability that Schüssel will form government with this respective party.

If a surprise happens and the SPÖ becomes strongest party, they'll form a government with the Greens if the number of votes suffices, or if it doesn't, then they'll try to form another great coalition with the ÖVP (like in the years 1986 to 1999).

IMHO it doesn't matter what party will be strongest since their programmes aren't too different from each other. Both parties will have to lead a government that saves money in order to comply with the EU stability criteria, so they have only limited space for additional subsidiaries anyway.

What would be important would be a reform of the educational system. Today there was an interview in "Der Standard" with Karl Aiginger, the head of the economy research institute "Wifo". He said that it's bad that there's a split of the secondary schools into "Hauptschule" and "Gymnasium" since hardly any student who attends a "Hauptschule" will take the Matura exams and study at university later on. If there was only a uniform type of school until age 14, then more people would continue studying, he thinks. Moreover, school must prepare pupils better for work-life; it focuses too much on being good and doing no harm, while it should actually motivate them to doing something and show them that work-life is competitive. I think much of his arguing is right and I'd also propose the establishment of one "Gesamtschule" for all secondary students. However, schools should have even more autonomy than now, including total freedom to choose their teaching personnel and their pupils. In this way schools with different strengths and levels could be established. "Hauptschule" teachers should be given equal rights as "Gymnasium" teachers, and in mid-term, the training of new teachers for the "Hauptschule" at the "Pädagogische Akademien" should be stopped so that all future teachers will have a decent academic qualification. That's my proposition.

Unfortunately, the ÖVP does not plan to implement any changes to the educational system, while the SPÖ (and Günther Haider, the director of the Austrian chapter of PISA, who might become next education secretary under a SPÖ-led government) has some concrete plans. So maybe it would be good to have a change in government.