October 26th marks the 69th anniversary of the decision of Austrian neutrality. After the treaty came into force, Austria declared itself to be permanently neutral.
Neutrality became a success story in the decades that followed, especially in the 70s and 80s, Austria was able to make a significant contribution to peace and disarmament in the world through an active neutrality policy.
But today things look different: peace is having a difficult time in the world in these times. In Ukraine, in the Caucasus, in North Africa, in the Middle East, in East Asia: military saber rattling, threats, violence and ultimately war are increasingly becoming the normal means of asserting interests. And especially now, when it is so important that neutral countries work for peace, leading commentators and politicians want to eliminate Austria’s neutrality today rather than tomorrow. There are more and more calls for joining NATO and neutrality is being increasingly weakened.
Voice for neutrality is missing
Neutrality has no reliable defender in parliament. Even if the FPÖ, ÖVP and SPÖ will invoke neutrality on the national holiday, in the government they all worked to undermine neutrality and led Austria into the NATO partnership and the EU battle groups and enabled war transports through our country and the federal army , sometimes made “able to form an alliance” through expensive armament purchases such as the Eurofighter.
Hold government accountable
But the population sees it differently; in all surveys, a clear majority of Austrians are in favor of neutrality. So it is up to all of us to defend it and demand that the future government carry out its tasks. Namely an active, solidarity-based neutrality policy in the spirit of peace.
Josef Meszlenyi
