Brussels, my love? Austrian elections again shake the establishment

This week, we are joined by Tomi Huhtanen, the executive director of the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, Bruno Waterfield, Brussels correspondent for The Times and Sophie Pornschlegel, the deputy director for the Europe Jacques Delors Institute.

The panel reflected on recent parliamentary elections in Austria that saw an impressive victory for the far-right Freedom Party, led by Herbert Kickl. The 55-year-old promotes a “fortress Austria” and hopes to become the next Austrian chancellor — but may struggle as most parties don’t want to work with him.

Sophie Pornschlegel feels the success of right-wing and populist parties is down to rising inequality.

“It translates into a far-right vote when there’s such a wage and wealth inequality,” she said.

Bruno Waterfield welcomed the results calling it a ‘populist civic revolt’.

“People across Europe should be really excited about it because politics is waking up again,” he said. “It’s really good.”

The panel also commented on EU-UK talks this week. Prime Minister Keir Starmer took the Eurostar to Brussels, seeking to open a fresh new chapter with European officials.

Bruno Waterfield, who reported on Brexit for years, said the hard work will begin now as regular summits start between the two sides.

“As ever with the European Union, the detailed work is where the difficulty begins”, he said.

According to Pornschlegel, “it’s very important for the UK government to understand that they shouldn’t try to sneak behind Brussels’ back and just go to national capitals thinking they can get some kind of bilateral deals.”

Watch ‘Brussels, my love?’ in the player above.