Every Sunday, Heribert Prantl, member of editor-in-chief and head of interior of SZ, deals with a topic that is relevant in coming week. Here you can also order "PRANTLS Glance" as a weekly newsletter-exclusively with his personal reading recommendations.

The most beautiful thing about Austria are mountains, Castle Theatre and polling stations, which are allowed to open re after law at midnight; Quite a few do so already at six o'clock in morning, ors at seven o'clock, next Sunday again, at National Council elections. "You'll have to get up earlier!" Austria has carried out this sentence ( people who have brought it to something, like to say to people who want to do something) in an exemplary way-at least on day of week. In Lower Saxony polling stations also open next Sunday for Landtag election only at eight o'clock and not earlier. Although Bird supposedly has gold in his mouth, it has been in Austria for decades for election results, as it has only been in Germany since September 24, 2017 stalking.

Almost 18 years ago, EU imposed sanctions on Austria when conservative ÖVP government of Wolfgang Schüssel was supported by Jörg Haider and his half-brown, racist and xenophobic FPÖ. These sanctions, which at time put whole of Europe in turmoil, were a symbolic political nursery, a force-setting without force, but with fervor.

I admit that EU intervention was not unsympatic to me at time. This sprang to a feeling, as I myself often had when I drove through Carinthia: so much stupidity in a country of such beauty! I would have stopped at every unspeakable anti-alien poster that would tear up spiteful sayings and throw m in trash. But we must not be allowed to get carried away by honest outrage in copying political style of extremists.

Anyway, next Sunday in Austria will be voted again-and current election campaign re reminded me of one once Haider led. Temper has been nothing in past twenty years; Racism and nationalism, which at that time still caused excitement, has become a daily occurrence, not only in Austria. In Austria (not only) ÖVP has absorbed policy of FPÖ. Maybe this will bring you election victory. Will it get to party and beautiful country of Austria?

The wealth of united Europe

Shortly before his death in year 2004, I interviewed old and wise Viennese Altkardinal Franz König. I asked him how to deal with Islam in Europe. And this wise old church man said, "We must learn to live with each or, not next to each or." Even n, in Austrian election campaigns, very toxic against foreigners and against Islam was rushed. And n this old man said something European-programmatic: "We have so many different cultures on heimatlichem soil. This wealth must not be levelled; He must shape united Europe. "

That's what it is. The richness of languages, cultures, traditions, religions-it must be taken into our Austria, in our Germany and in our European Union. But you get impression that this ideal is still much farr away than it was back n. Europe is experiencing a political backlash-in Poland and Hungary is particularly fierce. But or EU countries do not have to splurge. Many elections have become jittery elections; And one wonders wher right-wing parties, which are called trivial right-wing populists, can still continue to eat.

If future is going to run off

We live in a period of negative renaissance, a time of rebirth of old delusions and idiots. One reads thoughtfully sentence that Franz Grillparzer 1849 wrote: From humanity through nationality to bestiality. And one suspects and knows that humanity is again threatened, massive as it has been for decades no more. It is threatened by mean speech and common deed, by lust for political rudeness, Flegelei and insolence, by mockery of decency and diplomacy, it is threatened by a often very rabid disregard of respect that is due to every human being, The unemployed, fugitive and political adversary. This threat is re-but it is not fated, you can do something about it.

Certainly: one can describe sufferings of time in all facets. One can describe ir own hopelessness so sinister that future will run before one. One can describe sufferings of time in all facets and paint clues of impending demise. "Abominations", Sebastian Haffner called such reveling in dreads of time; He described it as a masochistic and moral suicide. The abominations are not particularly heavy in times when world suffers from trumps and Erdoğan's; We live in a time when faith in Progress of Enlightenment takes place in sense of progressive existential insecurity.

Date Of Update: 09 October 2017, 12:08