Anti-vaccination party MFG wins seats in Austria’s municipal offices

[Tender Branson]

The MFG party, which opposes the government’s vaccination campaign, has won places in 47 municipal offices in Tyrol in elections on Sunday.

It won the third largest share of the vote in the city of Kufstein and out of 50 communities, only failed to win seats in the three Schwaz communities of Eben am Achensee, Fügen and Mayrhofen.

However, the 22 MFG mayoral candidates were less successful. None of them achieved a majority or won a runoff.

There will be runoff mayoral elections in 31 municipalities in Tyrol on 13th March. The ÖVP party had some disappointing results in Tyrol’s cities, with Zams, the ÖVP governor Günther Platter’s home town, voting in a left wing SPÖ party candidate as mayor.

It is also not clear if Green politician Ingrid Felipe, who has been working with Platter as the deputy governor, will run as a candidate in the 2023 state elections.

EXPLAINED: Who are MFG – Austria’s vaccine-sceptic party?​

Austria's MFG, formed in protest of Covid measures, won seats in 47 of 50 seats in Tyrol on Sunday. Here's what you need to know.

Austria’s new party was founded largely based on protesting Covid restriction measures. Despite measures being wound back, the party is eyeing every election in the country.

MFG, or Menschen Freiheit Grundrechte (People Freedom Fundamental Rights), sometimes known as Austria’s anti-vaccination party, was founded in 2021 and has accumulated important victories in the country’s regional elections.

This Sunday, it won seats in 47 of the 50 local elections in the state of Tyrol, reaching the third-largest share of the vote in the city of Kufstein.

However, the 22 MFG mayoral candidates were less successful. None of them achieved a majority or won a runoff.

But what is this party, and what are its main proposals?

The vaccine-hesitancy party

MFG was founded in February 2021, at the height of the Covid pandemic crisis, with a goal to “restore our fundamental rights and our battered democracy”, according to the party’s website.

Much of the MFG’s basis and program relates to the strong criticism against the measures to combat the pandemic in Austria.

On the party’s program page, the word “corona” appears seven times – while “Austria” (or Österreich, in the German version) shows up eight times as a comparison.

The first paragraph starts with: “The government’s measures in the corona crisis are directed against democracy as well as freedoms and fundamental rights.”

However, scrolling by the “new corona politics” with points such as “immediate end to lockdown and mask mandates”, “testing only to confirm clinical diagnosis”, and “manufacturer must be liable for any vaccination damage”, it is possible to find other party proposals.

Direct democracy and more Covid criticism

Among the other issues raised by MFG is the defence of more direct democracy.

In its program, the party defends the creation of the possibility of the population to gather motions of censure against the government and its members, meaning referendums and direct democratic votes of no confidence.

When it comes to criminal or civil law, the fight against corruption is one of the highlights, with the party proposing asset confiscation in connection to criminal offences. There are also many popular demands, such as better pay for nurses.

However, many of the proposals are still connected to the Covid crisis. For example, the session dedicated to “schools and kindergartens” has six points on the program’s page, four of them, including “immediate opening of schools”, directly related to the pandemic.

Two are unrelated: finance equipment for children of low-income families and mandatory ethics lessons, with religious education voluntary.

What does the likely end of pandemic measures mean for the party?

The constant references to the pandemic and the growth of the party’s presence in protests against restrictions and Austria’s mandatory vaccination law have led many to wonder how durable the party is.

MFG’s federal chairman Michael Brunner insists the party is not only based on its combative instance against the Covid measures.

“It is not our only topic; we will be needed for years to come”, he told Austrian daily Der Standard. Brunner, a Viennese lawyer, added that it would take years to deal with the repercussions of the Covid restrictions and measures.

https://www.thelocal.at/20220228/today-in-austria-a-roundup-of-the-latest-news-on-monday-23/

That was an incredible result yesterday for a 1 year old party. It’s a populist vehicle for people to express their frustration right now. Could be bad in the long run, but so far they are just made up of conspiracy theorists and esoterics.

 

[Tender Branson]

We also have the Presidential election coming up in the fall, so MFG could also run a candidate there and achieve a solid protest result (against the incumbent President Van der Bellen, a green politician, or because he represents the government. He himself is popular, the government not.) Which means at least 40% are kinda „opposed“ to him in the election no matter what.

 

[Ginger Ale]

Hm.....what should I say? Congrats on getting sicker and dying from Covid and any vaccine covered illness more often in the future? I'm not sure......what the response should be.