Austria: New Government To Resist "Islamization"

Authored by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,

• A coalition between the anti-immigration Austrian People"s Party and the anti-establishment Austrian Freedom Party, which will be sworn into office on December 18, is poised to catapult Austria to the vanguard of Western Europe"s resistance to mass migration from the Muslim world.


• The massive demographic and religious shift underway in Austria, traditionally a Roman Catholic country, appears irreversible. Austria has also emerged as a major base for radical Islam.


• "We have a lot in common [with Israel]. I always say, if one defines the Judeo-Christian West, then Israel represents a kind of border. If Israel fails, Europe fails. And if Europe fails, Israel fails." — Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of the Austrian Freedom Party.

The anti-immigration Austrian People"s Party and the anti-establishment Austrian Freedom Party have reached a deal, creating a new coalition to govern Austria for the next five years. The ground-breaking political alliance, which will be sworn into office on December 18, is poised to catapult Austria to the vanguard of Western Europe"s resistance to mass migration from the Muslim world.

Chancellor-elect Sebastian Kurz, 31, who won Austria"s national election on October 15 after campaigning on a promise to halt illegal immigration, will govern with Heinz-Christian Strache, 48, the Freedom Party leader, who has warned that mass migration is "Islamizing" Austria. Under the agreement, Strache will become the vice-chancellor; the Freedom Party will also take control of the ministries of defense, interior and foreign affairs.

Austrian Chancellor-elect Sebastian Kurz (pictured), who won Austria"s national election after campaigning on a promise to halt illegal immigration, will govern with Heinz-Christian Strache, 48, the Freedom Party leader, who has warned that mass migration is "Islamizing" Austria. (Image source: Raul Mee/EU2017EE/Flickr)

Kurz has been a strong critic of German Chancellor Angela Merkel"s open-door migration policy, which has allowed more than a million mostly male migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East to enter the country during the past two years.

During his time as foreign minister, Kurz was instrumental in garnering parliamentary approval of a groundbreaking new law that regulates the integration of immigrants. The so-called Integration Law — which bans full-face Muslim veils in public spaces and prohibits Islamic radicals from distributing the Koran — establishes clear rules and responsibilities for recognized asylum seekers and refugees granted legal residence in the country.

The new law requires immigrants from non-EU countries to sign an "integration contract" which obligates them to learn written and spoken German and to enroll in courses about the "basic values of Austria"s legal and social order." Immigrants are also required to "acquire knowledge of the democratic order and the basic principles derived from it."

Previously, Kurz was instrumental in reforming Austria"s century-old Islam Law (Islamgesetz), governing the status of Muslims in the country. The new law, passed in February 2015, is aimed at integrating Muslims and fighting Islamic radicalism by promoting an "Islam with an Austrian character." It also stresses that Austrian law must take precedence over Islamic Sharia law for Muslims living in the country.

Austria"s Muslim population now exceeds 700,000 (or roughly 8% of the total population), up from an estimated 340,000 (or 4.25%) in 2001, and 150,000 (or 2%) in 1990, according to data compiled by the University of Vienna.

The massive demographic and religious shift underway in Austria, traditionally a Roman Catholic country, appears irreversible. In Vienna, where the Muslim population now exceeds 12.5%, Muslim students already outnumber Catholic students at middle and secondary schools. Muslim students are also on the verge of overtaking Catholics in Viennese elementary schools.

At the same time, Austria has emerged as a major base for radical Islam. Austria"s Agency for State Protection and Counterterrorism (BVT) has warned of the "exploding radicalization of the Salafist scene in Austria." Salafism is an anti-Western ideology that seeks to impose Islamic Sharia law.

"The immigration seen in recent years is changing our country not in a positive but in a negative way," said Kurz, who campaigned on a "law and order" platform: "Uncontrolled immigration destroys the order in a country."

Strache, a supporter of Israel who has distanced his party from the rhetoric of the Austrian far right, insists that anti-Semitism had no place in his party and has urged a common front against Islamists. He has also pledged "to ensure that boycotts [against Israeli products] get taken off the agenda."

During an April 2016 visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, at the invitation of at the invitation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu"s Likud party, Strache said:

"For us, it"s important to act against anti-Semitism, and also against Islamism and terrorism, and to discuss the issues we have in common. Anti-Semitism often emerges anew from Islamism and from the left.

 

"We have a lot in common [with Israel]. I always say, if one defines the Judeo-Christian West, then Israel represents a kind of border. If Israel fails, Europe fails. And if Europe fails, Israel fails."

Strache has called Merkel "the most dangerous woman in Europe" because of her migration policies, and has repeatedly said that Islam is "not part" of Austria. Strache has also warned that the "uncontrolled influx of migrants who are alien to our culture, who seep into our social welfare system ... makes civil war in the medium-term not unlikely." A Eurosceptic, Strache has called the European Union a "bureaucratic monster" and has said that Britain will "probably be better off after Brexit."

At Strache"s insistence, Karin Kneissl, an independent Middle East expert who speaks eight languages, including Arabic and Hebrew, will become Austria"s new foreign minister. Kneissl has been a vocal critic of EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, whom she has described as the "Caesar of Brussels." She has also criticized Merkel"s migrant policy as "grossly negligent."

Kneissl has said that most of the "refugees" arriving in Europe are overwhelmingly young males between the ages of 20 and 30 who are "economic migrants controlled by testosterone." In an interview on Austrian television, Kneissl said that one of the main reasons for the revolts in the Arab world was "many young Arab men can no longer find a wife because they have neither work nor their own home, and thus cannot achieve the status of a man in a traditional society."

Freedom Party Chairman Herbert Kickl, a speechwriter for the late party leader Jörg Haider and a close confidant of Strache, will become interior minister, a key position for domestic security and border control, while Mario Kunasek, a professional soldier, will run the defense ministry. Of the 16 future government ministers, only Kurz has Cabinet experience.

A 180-page document explains the new government"s agenda between now and 2022. It promises to crack down on political Islam; to crack down on illegal immigration; to speed up asylum decisions and to sponsor an EU summit on immigration when Austria holds the EU presidency in the second half of 2018.

The document also pledges to give Austrians more opportunities to vote in referendums — although it explicitly refuses to allow a referendum on the country"s continued membership in the European Union.

In addition, the document promises to: require migrants to learn German; require migrant kindergartners who have insufficient German language skills to repeat kindergarten before progressing to the first grade; increase the legal penalties for sexual crimes; strengthen Austrian defense; hire more police officers; reduce the bureaucracy and not raise taxes.

At the same time, however, the document pledges a strong commitment to the European Union: "Only in a strong Europe can there be a strong Austria in which we are able to take advantage of the opportunities of the 21st century."

Some observers have said that Kurz"s professed commitment to the European Union was aimed at calming worries in Europe about the Freedom Party"s Euroskeptic and anti-Islamization policy objectives. Others have described Kurz as a pragmatist "who is anti-establishment and establishment at the same time."

Kurz has nevertheless pledged to reject the European Union"s compulsory migrant quota. "I will work towards changing this erroneous refugee policy," he said. "Without the proper protection of the external borders of the EU, we will not come to grips with the problem of illegal migration."

The Unspeakable Crime Of Viktor Orban

Authored by F. William Engdahl via New Eastern Outlook,

Some people seem like they never learn how to play the game. At the top of the list in the European Union these days is Hungary and her stubborn Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán. He just doesn’t seem to get it. He doesn’t understand that it’s not “European” to defend the sovereign rights of your citizens and your nation. No matter how the EU faceless technocrats hovering around the dubious Luxembourg EU President Jean-Claude Juncker try to educate Orbán and his government, he doesn’t seem to get it.

The past year has been a tough one for the Brussels’ EU political correctness Supremos. First Mr Orbán insisted on going through with a national referendum. How anti-European! Letting citizens vote on issues affecting their lives in their own countries! What a dangerous idea if that ever spreads. Next thing you know women might demand genuine equality and to be taken seriously as human beings. Horror!

Last October 2016 Viktor Orbán’s government organized a referendum vote on whether to let the faceless, unelected EU Commission of President Jean-Claude Juncker (or his successors) dictate the number of refugees from North Africa and the Middle East Hungary would be forced to welcome, including to pay for and more. The Hungarian voters voted with over a whopping 98% in agreement with their Prime Minister that Brussels should have no such right.

In matter of fact it was Germany and France in September 2015 who convinced EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to turn to using a “qualified majority” vote, a sly way under the EU Lisbon Treaty to ram through decisions of the more powerful states against the smaller EU member wishes. Instead of the EU practice of using unanimity to decide such sensitive matters as forced taking of refugees, Germany and France forced through a relocation plan for 120,000 refugees using a qualified majority vote in an area where it has no legal competence to act according to EU legal scholars.

Fortunately, Brussels could ignore the Hungarian referendum vote on a technicality that just under 50% of eligible voters voted. Soros-allied NGO’s and their allies in Hungary waged a massive boycott campaign before the vote. “Whew! That was a close call. Democracy almost caught us in the act.”

And just to be sure no one in the rest of the EU would get suspicious that some basic democratic rights were being trampled on in Hungary, the anti-nationalist mainstream EU media threw a relentless barrage of calumny against Orbán for even daring to ask a popular vote.

University Transparency?

Next, that irascible troublemaker Orbán and his Education Ministry introduced a law that passed Hungary’s Parliament requiring Hungarian universities granting degrees in more than one country actually establish campuses in each and every country. The glaring offender was the Budapest Central European University (CEU). That curious institution was founded in 1991 just after the fall of communism by financial speculator and NGO fake democracy funder supreme, George Soros, in the post-communist chaos of Europe.

The new Hungarian law also required among other things that employees of the Budapest Soros university obtain work permits, a practice normal in every western democracy. The Central European University claimed that for some reason that would “limit its ability to hire staff.” The CEU spokespeople did not say that that ability limiting aspect of the new law was because undercover CIA agents were reluctant to file for legal work permits in foreign countries of operation. Or is there some other reason that law would limit the ability of Soros Budapest university to hire staff? The Orbán government has also demanded that the university open a campus in America as it grants degrees in New York State but has no campus there, and that it teach courses accredited by Hungarian education authorities and no longer teach US-accredited courses. Soros managed apparently to finnagle accreditation of their degrees in both Hungary and in the USA, despite the fact there is no US campus.

Money from Soros’ Open Society NGO went to finance among other things courses and training at the Soros Budapest university in a “civil learning and innovation (sic) platform to help strengthen the fabric of civil society in Hungary.”

The Central European University also takes money, lots of it, from the CIA-connected US Government NGO called National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as well as from Soros’ foundations. One recent NED grant to the Soros Budapest university went for a project at the university for honing the “skills of young Romani activists and scholars and promote their engagement in public service…focusing on public policy and human rights.” Some say Soros’ Central Europen University course offering reads more like a hybrid from a Saul Alinsky Rules for Radicals handbook and a Gene Sharp Color Revolution manual on “non-violence as a weapon of warfare.”

Rules of the club?

That new Hungarian university law really caused Brussels bureaucrats like Super-Commissar Frans Timmermans, the commission’s First Vice President, real heartburn before he was able to force Orbán to set aside the law after many threats to Orbán and his government. Timmermans, a former Dutch foreign minister who can never be faulted for erring on the side of democracy, remarked at the time, “The European Union is a project driven and designed by its member states.” He scolded Orbán, declaring that Hungary should remember she had signed on to “the rules of the club.”(sic)

EU Commission As Politburo

Yeah, Orbán, you thought joining the EU was joining a union of sovereign nation states engaged in principled dialogue? How naive can you be? It’s a club, and Brussels’ unelected Supremos like Juncker, and his seven Über-Commissars like Timmermans, will decide what’s good for you. “Them’s the rules of our club. Get it? I beg your pardon, Viktor Orbán, but we never promised you a rose garden, did we?”

Just to make clear that Brussels dictates ain’t about democracy and such silly old-fashioned notions, Juncker, on getting Angela Merkel’s definitely undemocratic nod to become EU President in 2014, created a new structure of seven Super-Commissioners or more appropriately, Super-Commissars. It resembles the old Soviet Politburo in most respects except that Brussels today is possibly a bit less democratic than Brezhnev’s Politburo.

Timmermans, technically First Vice-President under President Juncker, is Super-Commissar responsible for many portfolios including refugee or “migrant” policy as the EU euphemistically terms it.

The Juncker Super-Commissioners move the EU Commission even further away from any semblance of democracy. These Super Commissioners have the authority to control and frame other Commissioners’ activities including the right to veto any legislative proposal issued by their colleagues according to a fact book leaked from Soros’ Open Society Institutes.

Today the EU Commission is a power pyramid of unelected authority with President Juncker at the top and First Vice President Timmermans just beneath him. All other commissioners fall under their powers. This is something rarely discussed in public discussion in European mainstream media.

Now You Target NGOs?

The most recent Hungarian government slap in the face to Juncker and those God-fearing Commissars in Brussels and their pal George Soros is a new law the Orbán government proposed and the Hungarian Parliament approved on foreign-financed NGOs. Under the new law, any Hungarian NGO receiving more than €24,000 from foreign sources must make an annual declaration to the Hungarian government of precisely who the sources of their funds were. If an NGO refuses to divulge they risk being closed.

How vulgar! Now you can be sure that the myriad of Hungarian NGOs and assorted groups financed by the billions of dollars from Soros and his Washington NGO friends such as National Endowment for Democracy are not happy with even this mild new law. Perhaps they have something to hide from the Hungarian government? Who knows? Immediately the German Foreign Ministry, certainly no foe of Mr. Soros, issued a statement condemning the Hungarian NGO law. Foreign Minister spokesman Martin Schaefer said the new Hungarian law on NGOs puts it in the company of such countries as Russia and China which consider “financing NGOs from abroad as a hostile act.”

No one bothers to mention the fact that the United States has something called the Foreign Agents Registration Act requiring that agents representing the interests of foreign powers in a “political or quasi-political capacity” disclose their relationship with the foreign government and information about related activities and finances.

EU Makes Stupid Blunder

Taking what the Brussels EU Commissars clearly regard as the insufferable insolence of Orbán and the Hungarians against the Brussels attempt at absolute power over member country internal affairs, the EU decided to take the extraordinary act of launching “infringement procedures” against Hungary’s government. If the EU court finds Hungary guilty it could demand fines and other sanctions. Until now the EU Commission has never sanctioned an EU member state. A try of sanctions in 2000 against Austria for allowing members of Jörg Haider’s Austrian Freedom Party, FPÖ, into a coalition government were quickly dropped owing to huge anti-EU opposition.

For good measure, the EU court filing also included Poland and the Czech Republic who also steadfastly refuse to take the Brussels mandated refugees from Italy and Greece.

The EU Commission legal attack followed a May 17 vote of the EU Parliament–another bizarre not-democratic body if ever there was one. The EU Parliament, citing Hungary’s refusal on refugees as well as her new law on NGOs and the law on the Soros University, demanded that the EU trigger Article 7.1 of the EU Treaty that allows Brussels to determine if a member state has breached the EU “values” and whether it should be punished, including suspension of voting rights within the EU.

The Brussels legal attack on Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic will likely blow up in their face and accelerate the further dissolution of the obviously ill-conceived European Union. At the very least it forges unity of those under attack and stiffens resistance to a clearly autocratic EU bureaucracy and power patriarchy.

It‘s becoming crystal clear to more and more European citizens that the monster that is Brussels today does not represent the true interests of EU citizens. The unspeakable crime of V. Orbán is his insistence on acting in the interests of his citizens not to the self-declared arrogant unelected Commissars in Brussels.

Italy Furious After Austria Deploys Troops, Armored Vehicles To Border

An angry Italy summoned Austria"s ambassador after the government in Vienna announced it was ready to re-introduce border controls and deploy troops and armored vehicles along the border to block any migrant influx out of Italy. Austrian Defence Minister Hans Peter Doskozil told Kronen Zeitung daily that troops could go to the Brenner Pass and that four Pandur armoured personnel carriers had been sent to the Tyrol region with 750 troops were on standby.

“We need to prepare for the migration development in Italy, and I expect very promptly that border controls will have to be activated and assistance requested,” Hans Peter Doskozil told the online edition of the Krone daily, adding that a military deployment at the busy Alpine pass would be "indispensable if the influx into Italy [across the Mediterranean] does not diminish". While Austria has border checks with Hungary and Slovenia, elsewhere - such as on the border with Italy - it adheres to the EU open borders system.

Doskozil explained that “these are not battle tanks. These are armored vehicles without weapons which could block roads. These were already used during the refugee crisis 201/16 at the Spielfeld border crossing [with Slovenia],” just in case Italy got the impression that its northern neighbor was preparing to invade.

The Austrian border check point at Brenner.

The border controls will include the Alpine Brenner pass, which forms the border between Austria and Italy, one of the main mountain passes in the eastern Alps. There isn’t a strict time plan for the step-up in border security, but, according to Doskozil’s spokesman, “we see how the situation in Italy is becoming more acute and we have to be prepared to avoid a situation comparable to summer 2015” according to Reuters.

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said that Vienna is prepared to "protect" the frontier with Italy "if necessary," as he spoke with the Austria Press Agency. Later Italy"s foreign ministry said it had summoned Austrian Ambassador Rene Pollitzer "following the Austrian government"s statement about deploying troops to the Brenner (pass)".

The latest turmoil inside Europe"s customs union comes two years after Germany admitted over a million mostly Syrian migrants, as part of Angela Merkel"s "Open Door" (since shut) welcome, and just days after Italy"s interior minister demanded other EU nations "step up" and relieve Italy of the sudden flood of inbound migrants.

The Italian governor of South Tyrol, Arno Kompatscher, sought to defuse tensions. According to BBC, he said Austria had issued similar warnings about the border previously, and the situation there remained "quiet and stable". Austria was gearing up for a general election in October, Mr Kompatscher noted. The anti-immigration Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) is expected to poll strongly.

People-smuggling gangs have been exploiting the violence and chaos in Libya. The shortest crossing from Libya to Italy is only about 460km (290 miles). Nearly 85,000 migrants and refugees arrived in Italy in the first half of this year, across the Mediterranean. The UN refugee agency UNHCR says that is about 20% more than in the first half of 2016.

To be sure, the UN joined Italy"s appeal, with Vincent Cochetel, the UNHCR"S special envoy for the central Mediterranean, saying that “this is not sustainable. We need to have other countries joining Italy and sharing that responsibility." So far, nobody in the European "Union" has stepped up to "share the responsibility" of Europe"s generous refugee acceptance program.

The latest report by the UNHCR, revealed another troubling statistics: few of the migrants coming to Europe will granted asylum: 30% of them are fleeing conflict or persecution, while 70% of those arriving in Italy are economic migrants. Most migrants and refugees are young, single men with little or no education, and almost 15% are unaccompanied minors.

Meanwhile, Italy has also warned that the current scale of migrant arrivals is unsustainable and that it could even close its ports and impound aid agencies" rescue ships. In other words, yet another refugee crisis in Europe is imminent.

It will be the second time this has happened in two years. In 2015, the EU"s Schengen system, or the free movement across most European borders,  was overwhelmed by an influx of migrants and refugees, whoe reached Central Europe via the Balkans, and most sought asylum in Germany. Since then, tighter border controls in the Balkans have reduced the numbers heading north from Greece. Most of the influx to Austria was via Hungary. Many of those who came by train or on foot were refugees from Syria, Iraq and other conflict zones.

So far 101,000 migrants have entered Europe in 2017 via the Mediterranean and according to the latest figures, 2,247 people have died or are missing at sea.