The Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) could be in line for a mild ideological overhaul after a longtime critic of the nation’s asylum system scored the highest number of votes in hotly contested leadership elections Monday, May 22nd.
Hans Peter Doskozil, the current governor of the eastern state of Burgenland, came in first in a tight, three-way race for party leadership and has earned a reputation for his nuanced opposition to the country’s liberal approach to migration and asylum.
The leadership race was called after Doskozil threw down the gauntlet to SPÖ incumbent Pamela Rendi-Wagner, citing poor electoral performance and a failure to deal with the rising force of the nationalist Freedom Party (FPÖ), currently in first place in the polls. Doskozil narrowly defeated party rivals by a margin of 1% in an election result seen as a win for the party grassroots against progressive rivals.
The decision will now have to be ratified next month at a special party conference with pundits warning that the SPÖ faces months of infighting due to the failure to produce a clear-cut winner.
Doskozil came to public attention for asylum reforms that he championed while Defence Minister, reforms that granted the state powers to refuse entry to refugees if a state of emergency is declared. In 2017, the Social Democratic politician pushed to limit illegal immigration to Europe with reforms to the EU’s asylum policy that would impose a ceiling on new arrivals and the creation of new processing centre applicants in West Africa.
The Austrian political mainstream is struggling to catch up with a rise in nativist sentiment: a recent opinion poll put the country first among respondents wanting curbs to migration. As it stands, the country could be in line for a fresh asylum crisis. Hungary has just announced its decision to free foreign-born people smugglers that are clogging up its prisons—criminals who, once free, are likely to head west to Austria.
The Social Democrats are fearful of being permanently sidestepped by the FPÖ which has dominated regional elections the past few months and threatened their traditional grassroots base. Internationally, Austria has led the way in EU asylum reform with the country’s interior minister calling on European nations to clamp down on fraud through a common asylum policy earlier this year.
Doskozil denied any desire to enter a coalition with the FPÖ following his electoral triumph this week, adding that his preference was for a progressive alliance of the Left and centre similar to Germany.
During the campaign, Doskozil reiterated his commitment to win back FPÖ voters saying “we have to get them back” in response to potential outreach to disgruntled right-wing voters. The centre-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) is facing similar challenges of voters haemorrhaging to the right caused by the surge of the FPÖ.”
Throughout Europe, social democratic parties have faced calls to change their tune on out-of-control migration policies, with the Danish Social Democrats famously leading the way in dealing with the issue.
