well, mister hinterhalt already put out a short notice: our beloved freedom party is no more - at least not the way we knew it. it’s really typical for austrian politics, just look away for half a day, and all hell breaks loose. let me summarize what the hell happened, from what i could gather so far:

a large part of the FPÖ went off to found a new party, called the “coalition for austria’s future (BZÖ)”. among them are ursula haubner, our current minister of social affairs, vice chancellor hubert gorbach, herbert scheibner, who was our minister of defense in the cabinet schüssel I, and of course jörg haider. they don’t have any goals yet, not even a complete homepage, all you can do there is sign up for the party - and it’s just 35 bucks a year! wow!

the FPÖ, as usual, lies in shambles. with most of their leading caste gone, mr. hilmar kabas, who some might remember because he openly insulted former president thomas klestil, and most will recall because some joker whacked a pie into his face during a tv interview, is now the leader of the FPÖ, until they can hold a convention to decide what to do know that their head has cut itself off - but according to this article, this will take almost 3 weeks. most people’s bets seem to be on a certain mr. strache seizing the party for himself, which should everyone a good outlook on where the FPÖ is headed.

i won’t get into the democratic disaster that this move creates - in any normal state, such a move would automatically lead to reelections. but i doubt we’ll see that, seeing how our chancellor hasn’t said a single word on the whole issue. i just can’t stop laughing. it’s the best cabaret show i’ve seen in years, and i didn’t even have to pay! no, wait, this is all being paid by my tax money. whatever, it’s worth it.

p.s.: this is just my opinion, but don’t you love the irony, that of all parties, the FPÖ became a victim of balkanization ? i i do. first, the liberals, now this. it’s lovely.

p.p.s.: to put insult to injury, as of now, the homepage of the FPÖ is unreachable - their mysql database server seems to have died under the pressure. poor guy.