Austria’s Chancellor Resigns

After coalition negotiations in Austria failed on Friday, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced his resignation. This opens the way for the far-right Freedom Party to enter negotiations with the People’s Party, which prior coalition negotiations had hoped to prevent, and to potentially put forward a new chancellor.

The news not only shocked Austria but also its northern neighbor Germany, which fears a similar rise of the far right in the scheduled February elections.

Austria is an example of how things should not be done! If the centrist parties are unable to form alliances and dismiss compromises as the devil’s work, it helps the radicals.
—Robert Habeck, German vice chancellor

If the change in policy does not succeed in Germany now, then the radical forces will become stronger here too. And that’s why Austria is simply a warning signal to us.
—Alexander Dobrindt, chairman of the Christian Social Union

Democracy at its end? Many fear that political parties have drifted so far apart that stable governments are no longer possible. The Trumpet believes that this trend will lead to the undemocratic rise and rule of strong leaders in Europe.

There is a big leadership vacuum. Germans know something dramatic must be done, and quickly! You see this in recent election results with the rise of fringe parties like the Alternative für Deutschland. Voters are showing themselves willing to embrace out-of-the-ordinary politics. They are clamoring for a strong leader!
—Gerald Flurry, Trumpet editor in chief, “After Trump’s Victory, Watch Germany”