21.5% extremists in the Austrian election

Voters give far right a drubbing in Austria presidential election / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com: "Mr. Fischer, formerly with the Social Democrats, garnered nearly 78 percent of the vote. Rosenkranz came in a distant second with 15.5 percent. Rudolf Gehring, leader of the newly formed Christian Party, received nearly 6 percent of the vote."

The other former partner in the Austrio-Hungarian empire Hungary displayed an extremist party Jobbik that caught 17% of the popular vote in a recent election. As in Austria another party, Fidesz, polarized and got a large part of the vote. The Danish People's Party which also alienates foreigners, got 13.8% of the vote in the 2007 year election. In Sweden, Sverigedemokraterna, is consistently getting over 4% in the polls which might mean that they could enter the parliament in this years election.

These numbers are too high in my humble opinion. People try to put the lid on but the problem remains although the CSMonitor claims the extremists parties in Austria are not popular among the young. We have to remember that Barbara Rosenkrantz ran for president on a ticket that would have changed the law against Holocaust denial. When a person claims she represents the freedom of denying the Holocaust, and gets 15.5% of the vote, something is really not alright. This is Europe, not the Islamic Republic.

The Localisation of Belgium?

At the same time as the government became more unpopular in the US, around 1970, the break-up of Belgium began. We can see the result of this in the current government coalition problem a couple of months before Belgium is to lead the EU for half a year under its old PM Herman van Rompuy. The Flemish Liberal Party left the coalition. There are speculations that this might depend on the anti-face cover of Muslim women vote.

In 1970, Belgium's first state reform took place. Three cultural communities were established: The Dutch Cultural Community, The French Cultural Community and the German Cultural Community.

In 1980, the second state reform was undertaken. The Cultural Communities became Communities. The Flemish Community, The French Community and The German-speaking Community. These communities took care of cultural matters as well as health and youth matters. Two Regions were also established: The Flemish Region and the Walloon Region.

The third state reform was undertaken in 1988 and 1989. The Brussels-Capital Region was established with its own regional institutions. Education matters were transferred to the Communities.

In 1993, during the fourth state reform, Belgium was turned into a fully-fledged federal state. More power was given to the Communities and the regions which now elected directly to their parliaments. There was also a reformation of the Federal Parliament's bicameral system and the relations between the federal parliament and federal government.

In 2001, the fifth state reform took place with more transfer of duties to the Communities and the Regions. There is now demands of a sixth reform after deliberations in 2007.

I wonder if the "Öresunds Region" in Denmark-Sweden is going to become independent? Like the Brussel's Capital Region. There are 3.7m people living there which is three times the population of Estonia. Maybe this is too large though? Olof Palme was the one that started out in Sweden around 1970. Was his death in 1986 related to the changes he brought?

Danmark 2020, anyone?

Statsministeriet publikation: "DANMARK 2020
Viden; vækst; velstand; velfærd"

Knowledge; growth; well to do; welfare: says Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the Danish premier minister, with his newly reshuffled government. Furthermore, in ten points, he says freedom, equal opportunity, energy efficiency, trust and comfort, less bureaucracy.

Rasmussen does not say "föregångsland" and it might not be a coincidence that he reshuffles right after the 80 points of EU 2020 were presented.

What ailes the EU?

The latest Eubarometer is out that came in December 2009. I remain fascinated over the drastic interest in the environment by Sweden. A full 20%, top in the EU27, think the environment is important compared with a 4% interest for EU27. The data for EU27:Sweden are as follows:

Unemployment 51%:63%
Economic situation 40%:30%
Crime 19%:14%
Rising prices/Inflation 19%:2%
Health Care system 14%:26%
Immigration 9%:9%
Pensions 9%:6%
Taxation 8%:3%
The Educational system 7%:16%
Housing 5%:3%
Terrorism 4%:1%
The Environment 4%:20%
Energy 3%:6%
Defence/Foreign Affairs 2%:1%

Unemployment has gone up from 26% to 49% in the last Eubarometer to 51% in this one and is the most talked about issue in the Swedish election debate that is starting up. The Alliance claims that it has become the same as prior to the last election 2006 due to good management whereas the Red-Greens talk about causation of unemployment due to erroneous politics which seems to be wrong.

Taxation, Rising Prices, Housing, Terrorism and Foreign Affairs are very unimportant in Sweden. I find this particularly interesting since taxation is the sole major difference between the two voting blocks for the election in September. Are we in effect moving towards a one-party system?

The low interest in Terrorism and Foreign Affairs show very well in the blogging activity on the subjects which are dismal. In the US, on the contrary, they are very concerned that some lunatic would carry aboard a nuclear bomb. Imposing freedom on people has its price. The elites ruling the EU, however, must be much more engaged in these matters than the average person answering the poll. There has been some writings about the new High Representative, Lady Ashton and her large staff, added as a consequence after the Lisbon Treaty of 2009. Only 2% of people are interested in what she does.

The high importance given to Crime worries me, although it is on a lowering trend. Denmark is worth noting, since we are neighbors. 39% of Danes think Crime is important versus 14% for Swedes and 19% for all the EU27 members.

I have listed the environment country by country before but it has changed somewhat so I list it again. Swedes are infatuated with the environment as could be seen in the media prior to the COP15 conference. Data were collected October, November 2009. Sweden, France and Finland all have a high proportion of their electricity produced by nuclear power. Denmark has a high proportion of electricity from wind power.

Sweden 20%
Denmark 16%
France 10%
Malta 8%
The Netherlands, Finland 7%
The Rest 5% or below

According to my humble opinion it must be considered a problem that so few people are concerned about their political surroundings. It is going to make it difficult to build an EU with a defined place in the world.