Seven Parliamentarians of the Austrian BZO (Bündnis Zukunft Österreich or Alliance for the Future of Austria) were elected to the National Council at the October 1st elections. The party was created in 2005 by former members of the FPO (Freedom Party) and originally led by the controversial populist Joerg Haider.
Their party programme which includes an increase in Direct Democracy, Support for Small Businesses, Minimum wages and employment and environmental standards, Neutrality, stricter immigration controls, and a Europe of nation states (as apart from a United States). None of these would be out of place in a National Liberal Manifesto. Furthermore their two abiding principles are focused on Personal liberty and the Homeland (nation). The party colour is Orange to represent the people (as has been adopted by our own party political wing).
Given their ‘far-right’ backgrounds, including their founder, Joerg Haider, some commentators try and put them into the same bracket as the FPO. We at the Third Way know, however, that this does not mean that their views have not moved on, indeed our own experience shows that this change of outlook will have taken place whilst still in their original party. At some point they would have realised that they have grown apart from the party, hence the need to create an alternative vehicle for their views.
We wish them well in their recent success which can be built upon in future elections. We hope that more and more National Liberal parties emerge out of the political landscape and that the ideas of National Liberalism, as once envisaged by the socially-conscious Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini, will again flourish.
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