Is the Free Lunch Over in Vienna?

THE DARK SIDE OF THE EARTH – The migration situation is forcing the mainstream to act so as not to further strengthen the right.

Herbert Kickl, leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) in Vienna on 12 February 2025. (Photo: Alex HALADA / AFP)

It is a mere coincidence that Germany and Austria may both see a change in government within a few months of each other. However, we should not expect a radical rightward shift—at most, a dose of sobriety. This is partly because the Green Party, which has transformed from environmentalists into dogmatic ideologues and is arguably Europe’s most extreme political group, does not seem likely to be part of either new government. We can also anticipate a degree of sobering up in migration policy, as neither of the mainstream coalitions can afford to allow the Alternative for Germany (AfD) or Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ) to continue gaining strength.

But unless they change the current immigration situation, this is precisely what will happen, again. Austria’s new chancellor, Christian Stocker of the People’s Party, struck a tough tone in his inaugural address to the Vienna parliament on Friday, repeatedly emphasizing the need to crack down on illegal immigration, abuse of the asylum system, and extremism. Effective immediately, the government is suspending family reunification for refugees—meaning they cannot bring over family members left behind. Stocker even announced that if the number of asylum applications continues to rise, Austria will invoke an emergency clause within the EU to impose a full asylum freeze. These are strong words, but their implementation will be closely scrutinized—especially by the anti-immigration FPÖ, which has seen its popularity soar since the elections. — Anyone who wants to live here permanently must adopt our values, learn our language, and get a job! — thundered the new chancellor, flanked by his Social Democratic vice chancellor and his liberal (!) foreign minister.

What, is the exotic no longer so appealing?

A quarter-century ago, when Friedrich Merz—who is now poised to become Germany’s next chancellor—introduced the concept of Leitkultur (guiding or leading culture) into public discourse, it caused a scandal. When his fellow party member, Jürgen Rüttgers, coined the slogan Kinder statt Inder (children instead of indians)—essentially a German precursor to Hungary’s current family and immigration policies, advocating for native births rather than improving demographics through immigration—it sparked an uproar. Such ideas, critics argued, amounted to racism, or at best, “ethnic nationalism.” The Greens flooded Rüttgers’s mailbox with protests.

These are the same Greens who have since earned the moniker Verbotspartei (The Ban Party) because, upon entering government, they sought to dictate what Germans could eat, how they could travel, what they could use for heating, and even how they could speak to each other. One of their prominent members, Cem Özdemir—who, no joke, identifies as an Anatolian Swabian—was appointed agriculture minister by his wise party and the even wiser Chancellor Olaf Scholz, likely because Özdemir is a vegetarian. Naturally, in the spirit of tolerance and openness—values he surely expects as a second-generation immigrant—he promptly removed meat from the ministry’s menu. Well, who would have thought?! German livestock farmers were never fond of him, and now they’re popping champagne at the news of his departure."

There was a time when we, too, waded neck-deep in political correctness, lulling ourselves into multicultural illusions.

"Historically, the word foreigner has been synonymous with the enemy. We like to think we have long moved past this, yet time and again, we must confront this mentality. But this does not only exclude the foreigner; it is not only lethal to the outsider—it is, above all, self-destructive. I do not believe there is a people, a group, or an individual whose culture is not woven from multiple threads. If we try to pull out even a single strand from this colorful tapestry, the whole fabric is no longer the same — said Arpad Goncz, former President of Hungary, at an exhibition opening many years ago. Neat words. And yet, today, Europe is shedding another left-wing illusion—one of many, after having already abandoned faith in social equality, Marxist ideology, communal living, and who knows what else.

Every day, Europe feels the negative effects of immigration from outside the EU—ranging from integration difficulties and terrorist attacks to everyday crime, the overwhelming burden on social welfare systems, and rampant abuse of benefits, not to mention the obstacles to deporting rejected asylum seekers.

This extends to the shameless exploitation of well-meaning people, the branding of dissenters as racists, and intolerance masquerading as tolerance. Today, Andreas Babler, leader of one of Europe’s oldest social democratic parties, the SPÖ, and newly appointed vice chancellor, along with liberal party leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger - now serving as a minister - must listen as their new boss tells immigrants: adapt or leave! because we will not be the ones learning Arabic - you will learn German. You will not be smoking hookah all day on welfare - you will get a job. You will not wrap your daughter’s head in a scarf, because that is a part of Muslim customs we are not willing to accept. And your residence permit does not entitle you to bring over your entire extended family. Both Babler and Meinl-Reisinger can see which curve is rising faster: the one showing society’s growing resistance to mass immigration, or the one suggesting that a growing number of new citizens are casting their grateful vote for the mainstream political parties.

At 65, Stocker may be a late bloomer, having previously made little impact on national politics. He was once deputy mayor of Wiener Neustadt—a city that holds a grim place in Hungarian history as the execution site of Peter Zrinyi, Ferenc Frangepan, and Ferenc Rakoczi.

But even they could not have imagined that in the 21st century, there would be classrooms in that very city where not a single child speaks German as a first language. In Vienna’s secondary schools, 77 percent of students—or, in some places, as many as 96 percent—speak a language other than German at home.

Yet, naturally, anyone who dares to highlight this stark demographic shift is accused of playing the Nazi card—just as Thilo Sarrazin was when he wrote Germany Abolishes Itself. (The book became a runaway bestseller in Germany, proving that the Hitler complex, it seems, also sparks curiosity.)

The term Umvolkung (population replacement) evokes Nazi-era policies, just as the French recoil at the phrase grand remplacement (great replacement). (Although in Budapest, not so much—today, our guest is Eric Zemmour, leader of the Reconquest party, who garnered over two million votes in the 2022 French presidential election. His message? Replacement begins the moment too many immigrants arrive who no longer assimilate.) Robert Winder, in his book entitled Bloody Foreigners, claims that today, the proportion of people of African descent in London is no higher than it was 250 years ago. But London was once the center of a vast empire. Across Europe, however, the number of immigrants continues to grow. And the public is demanding change.