Notes from the field

My knowledge of European current events is limited to what I read about Lily Allen on perezhilton.com and, more recently, the whole Berlusconi/naked young ladies scandal. Yet since moving to Vienna, it's been difficult to ignore the election season - the entire city is covered with candidate billboards and I even got free shots at the bar on Saturday from some guy's campaign (danke!) .

As much as I talk up Austria, the place has some major underlying problems which came to the surface during the elections. Most distressingly, the country - home to the world's third-largest United Nations office - has become increasingly xenophobic. During the election season, conservative candidates attacked Austria's immigration policies and were particularly critical of the country's large Turkish and Balkan communities. And from speaking with Turkish colleagues at work, it's not just political rhetoric - getting service at restaurants and stores and finding housing can be difficult if you're not seen as truly "Austrian."

Today's election results provide a good window into what popular opinion is regarding "outsiders." According to the NYT, Austria's far-right, anti-immigration Freedom Party is expected to take 13% of Parliamentary seats - double the share of the vote it received in the 2004 elections.

You might remember the Freedom Party from the whole Jörg Haider controvery a little under a decade ago. Haider, a Nazi sympathizer, ran on an anti-immigration platform and successfully formed a coalition government with another conservative party in 2000. The party quickly fell out of favor but has recently re-emerged as a force on the national stage. And the strength of the far-right isn't limited to Austria - similar parties in Britain, Denmark, and the Netherlands also saw big gains at the polls yesterday. Ultimately, the election results signal an unsettling move toward extremism not just in Austria but across Europe as a whole.

Obama better fix this shit.