The majority of the Austrian population supports Vienna’s refusal to accept Romania and Bulgaria’s Schengen membership, most supporters are voters of the ruling conservatives (OeVP) and the nationalist party FPOe, reveals an opinion poll cited by the Austrian press on Sunday, broadcasts News.ro.
Thus, 52% of respondents said they approved of the decision to block Romania and Bulgaria in Schengen and 34% said they did not agree.
The veto for Schengen is mostly approved by the voters of OeVP and FPOe.
On the other hand, the poll confirms that the nationalist Freedom Party (FPOe) enjoys the greatest popularity and has surpassed the traditional Austrian parties. In fact, Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservatives are only in third place in the preferences of the electorate. With 26 percent, the Freedom Party takes first place, ahead of the Social Democrats of SPOe, rated at 24 percent, and the Conservatives of OeVP, who have 22 percent.
NEOS, a relatively new liberal-leaning party on the Austrian political scene, and the Greens, who are minority partners in the government, are tied for fourth place with 11%.
Currently, the extremist party MFG, which brings together anti-vaccines and supporters of conspiracy theories, would have a three percent share and would thus lose entry into the National Council (the lower house of the Austrian parliament).
According to the survey, the upward trend of FPOe continues, while SPOe has dropped to second place. The reason for this is probably the hesitant attitude towards asylum and Schengen. The last time SPOe ranked below 25% was in the summer of 2021, the public opinion polling institute says.
If there were an election for the post of chancellor, Karl Nehammer would remain in the lead, with an approval rating of 30%, ahead of FPOe leader, Herbert Kickl, who has 25% vote intentions. SPOe leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner followed Kickl for the first time since October 2021, with 22% of voting intentions. At a great distance the leader of NEOS, Meinl-Reisinger (12 percent) and his counterpart of the Greens, the current vice chancellor Werner Kogler (10 percent).
But if the governor of Burgenland (the easternmost land of Austria, which borders Hungary – no), the social democrat Hans Peter Doskozil, were to run for the chancellery, the situation would be different. In this case, Doskozil would be in first place, with 31 percent of voting intentions, followed by the current chancellor Karl Nehammer (25 percent) and the leader of the Freedom Party, Herbert Kickl (21 percent). According to the sociological study, Doskozil, as the Social Democrats’ candidate for chancellor, would make up for the losses that the centre-left had among centre-left voters who went right, as well as undecided voters.
In the Schengen debate, the Austrian Social Democrats took a hesitant stance, with some of the party’s top politicians criticizing the government, while party leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner agreed to block Romania and Bulgaria. And Doskozil criticized the interior minister, but only to reproach him for not being firm enough and for not asking for more effective controls at the Bulgarian borders. As for the Greens, who are in government, they have spoken out against blocking decisions at EU level.
The survey “Austria Trends” (trends – no) was conducted by the “Peter Hajek” institute at the behest of the APA news agency and TV station ATV. 800 people over the age of 16 were interviewed online and by telephone between December 12 and 15, and the margin of error is plus/minus 3.5%.
