<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The year 1995 rather coincidentally tags both the foundation of the Central European Political Science Association and the accedence of Austria, one of its founding members, to the European Union. Austria has particularly benefitted from its membership and the following EU enlargement rounds which also welcomed the other CEPSA members to the club. However, it seems that these advantages have not yet been fully appreciated, neither by a significant part of the political elite nor by the majority of the Austrian population. Increasing Euroscepticism and EU bashing can be observed during the last two and a half decades. The rise of the populist far-right, EU-hostile Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) was simultaneous. Of course, the political success of right-wing populism in combination with strong Euroscepticism has become a pan-European phenomenon since at least the last two decades. It is certainly not purely an Austrian phenomenon. Nevertheless, one can observe national differences. Since a systematic comparison of the development of right-wing populist patterns and related political trends between Austria and other CEPSA member countries would go beyond the scope of this essay, the focus of the paper is on relevant Austrian characteristics pertinent to this phenomenon.</p></abstract>

The year 1995 rather coincidentally tags both the foundation of the Central European Political Science Association and the accedence of Austria, one of its founding members, to the European Union. Austria has particularly benefitted from its membership and the following EU enlargement rounds which also welcomed the other CEPSA members to the club. However, it seems that these advantages have not yet been fully appreciated, neither by a significant part of the political elite nor by the majority of the Austrian population. Increasing Euroscepticism and EU bashing can be observed during the last two and a half decades. The rise of the populist far-right, EU-hostile Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) was simultaneous. Of course, the political success of right-wing populism in combination with strong Euroscepticism has become a pan-European phenomenon since at least the last two decades. It is certainly not purely an Austrian phenomenon. Nevertheless, one can observe national differences. Since a systematic comparison of the development of right-wing populist patterns and related political trends between Austria and other CEPSA member countries would go beyond the scope of this essay, the focus of the paper is on relevant Austrian characteristics pertinent to this phenomenon.

25 years later – Austria’s shift to the populist right: national characteristics of a pan-European trend

Politics in Central Europe

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The year 1995 rather coincidentally tags both the foundation of the Central European Political Science Association and the accedence of Austria, one of its...

25 years later – Austria’s shift to the populist right: national characteristics of a pan-European trend

Published Online: Sep 18, 2020

Page range: 399 - 417

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2020-0024

Keywords
Austria, Euroscepticism, right-wing populism, far-right, political parties, political mainstream

© 2020 Karin Liebhart, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

25 years later – Austria’s shift to the populist right: national characteristics of a pan-European trend

Published Online: Sep 18, 2020

Page range: 399 - 417

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2020-0024

KeywordsAustria, Euroscepticism, right-wing populism, far-right, political parties, political mainstream

© 2020 Karin Liebhart, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Austria, Euroscepticism, right-wing populism, far-right, political parties, political mainstream