BOOKS AND BROCHURES

“Request granted”

Comments on the 2016 presidential elections

Many will remember the presidential elections in 2016 as the longest election of the Second Republic, people in Austria voted three times altogether.

The book describes how the election was challenged and how the second round of elections was cancelled by the Austrian Constitutional Court. This annulment can rightly be considered a victory of the rule of law and democracy. The Constitutional Court dealt with the Liberals’ complaint quickly, carefully and transparently. The judges fulfilled their obligations when they pointed out major breaches of law and also irregularities that enabled manipulations. The ruling helped safeguard the confidence of Austrian citizens in the rule of law. 

The authors tried to shed light on the background of this historical election through different approaches and points of view. 

Election Vademecum to the Presidential Elections in 2017

for observers of parish or community election authorities

Election Vademecum to the Presidential Elections in 2017

for observers of district election authorities

Taxes and Social Security 2017

A guide

Austria currently suffers from the highest tax burden in the history of the Second Republic. Even internationally, Austrian tax rates have earned us a top place in Europe, and the two ruling parties, the SPÖ and ÖVP, are responsible for this.

These guidelines, drawn up under the leadership of the speaker for finances of the Liberal group in Parliament, Member of the National Council Dr. Hubert Fuchs, will make it easier to navigate in the jungle of legal developments. Of course, it may, and should, not substitute for expert tax advice.

Compact Information

The Freedom Party: History, Programme, Organisation, Contacts

As a citizen interested in politics you cannot help coming across all sorts of questions about the organisation and the programme of the FPÖ. For example:

·         How has FPÖ developed in history?

·         What is the FPÖ’s organisational structure?

·         How is the Party structured at federal and state level?

·         Which bodies in the FPÖ decide on what?

·         What are the key points of the liberal party programme?

·         Where are the contact points at federal and state level?

This brochure strives to give clear and succinct, i.e. compact, answers to these and similar questions. The focus is on being easy to understand with clear graphics. 

The brochure is also available online.

Compulsory military service 2016

Turnaround in the army or one-off effect?

The third book in this series has now been published, which is intended to strengthen the conscription and defensive readiness of our republic. The first two volumes “Compulsory military service - Input for current debate” and “Compulsory military service 2014 - One year after the referendum” are already out of print.

Elected Representatives

The FPÖ and the Parliament

After the 2006 elections to the National Council, the Freedom Party returned to parliament with 21 seats under their party chairman and current parliamentary fraction leader Heinz-Christian Strache. After the implosion of the FPÖ as a result of the events at Knittelfeld and the Haider spin-off of the BZÖ, the FPÖ – considered doomed – recovered impressively in order to continue its many years of work in the Parliament. After the new beginning in 2006, the National Council elections of 2008 and finally those of 2013 came, with the Freedom Party becoming the strongest opposition party in the Republic with a good 20 percent of the votes and a parliamentary fraction of 40 members.

Fraction leader and Federal Party Chairman Heinz-Christian Strache and his two Secretary Generals Herbert Kickl and Harald Vilimsky, supported by Fraction Director Norbert Nemeth, the two Presidents of the National Council Martin Graf and subsequently Norbert Hofer, as well as many influential parliamentary personalities made the FPÖ and the FPÖ Parliamentary Fraction the driving political force of the country during this decade.

In these years, the FPÖ once again distinguished itself as a control party - parliamentary inquiry committees chaired by or at least decisively determined by the FPÖ made this very clear. No other fraction has made so many requests and motions, and, in addition to parliamentary democracy, has argued for more democracy. Ten years later, 38 members of the National Council, 13 members of the Federal Council and four members of the European Parliament make up this FPÖ parliamentary fraction, up from 21 MPs in 2006. They are representatives of the people in the truest sense of the word.

But anyone who wants to judge the work of today's FPÖ parliamentary fraction must also shed light on the parliamentary work of the preceding decades: the era of Jörg Haider, the time of Norbert Steger and the era of Friedrich Peter are of great importance for Austrian parliamentarianism. The parliamentary work of the national-liberal camp in the interwar period is a proud tradition of the party. And the development of the rule of law, the constitutional state and parliamentarianism in the Habsburg monarchy are also merits of this national-liberal movement. And all this began in Frankfurt's St. Paul’s Church, the mother of all German parliaments.

Election Vademecum to the Presidential Elections in 2016

for observers of district election authorities

Election Vademecum to the Presidential Elections in 2016

for observers of district election authorities

Committees of inquiry as a minority right

A documentation of the struggle for this parliamentary control instrument

The agreement reached in the Austrian National Council in 2015 to establish the parliamentary committee of inquiry as a minority right is regarded by many as a "milestone" that underlines the eminent importance of democratic policy.

At first, this law made the Hypo Committee of Inquiry possible. In this respect it seemed logical to record this in a book, which FPÖ parliamentary fraction director Norbert Nemeth and office managers HC Strache and Reinhard Teufel did as a group of authors.

In this work, now published by the FPÖ Education Institute, the authors try to build a bridge, from the beginnings in the Constitutional Convention through the media discussion of opinion-makers and decision-makers of this republic to the programmatic reflection in the position papers of the parliamentary groups represented in the National Council. In addition, the legal situation in the individual federal states is presented and compared.

Renowned constitutional law expert Andreas Hauer emphasises in the preface to the book: "Norbert Nemeth and Reinhard Teufel have extensively and knowledgeably documented the long struggle for the minority right to set up parliamentary committees of inquiry and embedded this in numerous interactions.”

Nemeth and Teufel show that in parliamentary systems of governance, in which the government has a majority in parliament, control rights can only be effectively used if they are also available to a minority - or the majority is prepared to allow control.

They point out that the most important task of Parliament remains legislation. "Nevertheless, it had to be ensured that effective instruments were also made available for parliamentary control over the activities of the government and administration," the authors said. This would ensure the “quality of government processes in the most comprehensive sense”, which the outgoing Federal President Heinz Fischer had once demanded. 

Taxes and Social Security 2016

A guide

The tax reform adopted by the red-black federal government entered into force in January 2017. The joy of many people seeing a higher net amount in their bank statements left from their gross income was soon overshadowed by the realisation that this was merely a tax policy bluff. 

These guidelines, drawn up under the leadership of the speaker for finances of the Liberal group in Parliament, Member of the National Council Dr. Hubert Fuchs, will make it easier to navigate in the jungle of legal developments.

Austria First: 1956 - 2016

60 Years of the FPÖ - the social homeland party

In this publication we look back on the 60-year history of a party and the soon 200-year old history of a political movement. This review of the 60 years of the Freedom Party of Austria begins in the here and now, and goes back in time.

First, we look at the Strache Era, encompassing a good decade from 2005 to 2016. Then there is the time of the government coalition with the People’s Party between 2000 and 2006, which we regard as the second period. Thirdly, we recall the era of the rise of FPÖ under Jörg Haider between 1986 and 2000, which is followed by Chapter 4 on the cooperation in the government under social-democrat Norbert Steger. Then Chapter 5 studies the foundation and inclusion of FPÖ in the political system of the Second Republic between 1956 and 1989. Last but not least we also outline the historical path of the national-liberal camps from their beginning during the Habsburg Monarchy through the tough years of the First Republic right to the foundation of the FPÖ.

FPÖ Women Initiative: End of gendering

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Equal rights for women and men in all areas of life is a matter of course for the FPÖ. However, this equality has nothing to do with the current, left-wing extremist gender ideology, which keeps blossoming absurdly and whose real goal is to see incapacitated, uniform human beings. The gender doctrine pretends to be for diversity, but ultimately leads to simplicity...

School today

Between privilege and dulling of the people

The FPÖ Education Institute devoted itself to the topic of educational misery in the context of a panel discussion with education experts, the FPÖ education spokesman, National Council member Dr. Rosenkranz, the President of the German Teachers' Association, Josef Kraus, former President of the Vienna School Council, Dr. Scholz, and the new FPÖ education spokesman in the Vienna State Parliament and municipal council Maximilian Krauss.

The pros and cons of introducing the comprehensive school and the new secondary school, the dismantling of the secondary school, the PISA tests and school trials as well as educational policy realities in the school sector were discussed in detail.

The central issue was whether we in Austria were not running the risk of a good education becoming wealth-dependent in the future due to a lack of reforms, but also precisely because of some reforms, such as the introduction of comprehensive schools. If this can no longer be guaranteed in the public school system, mainly due to a lowering of educational standards, private schools become an expensive alternative.

Energy and food

Fundamentals of freedom

As a nature conservation and homeland party, the FPÖ considers it its primary task to ensure an intact environment in Austria and independence from unsafe energy imports for our country. The most important foundations of national sovereignty are self-determination and self-sufficiency in the water, food and energy sectors. 

Freedom is our greatest asset. This is the first and most important sentence in the FPÖ party programme. This book makes a small contribution to drawing closer to our freedom in a self-determined homeland. 

Persecution of Christians today

Die größte Gruppe aller aus religiösen Gründen Verfolgten.

“Today, some 100 million Christians worldwide are persecuted for their faith. They are the largest group of all those persecuted for religious reasons.” This is what HC Strache writes in his preface to the brochure "Christenverfolgung heute" (Persecution of Christians Today), published by the FPÖ Education Institute at the turn of 2014. The author Katharina Grieb has focused consistently on the realisation of human rights for decades. Since 1985 she has been President of the Austria Section of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR), which was founded in 1983. Until 2013 she was the first Vice-President of the International Council of this organisation. In her brochure entitled "Persecution of Christians Today" she describes the current situation of Christians around the globe and makes people listen with her descriptions of the dangerous situations Christians are exposed to because of their faith. In the end, you have to ask yourself the question: “Why doesn't the world raise its voice against these brutal acts?”

Life after paraplegia

Mentor for the handicapped and people in need of care

In August 2003, Austrian politician Norbert Hofer had a serious accident while paragliding. He survived, but the cold diagnosis was: spinal paralysis - life in a wheelchair.

Hardly anyone who meets him years later knows his tale of suffering or his wheelchair handling skills.

Eleven years after the accident, this book talks about the long way back, great goals, small steps and the search for new happiness. A must read for all people who believe that a stroke of fate only ever hits others, and a book of hope for those who are confronted with an apparently hopeless situation. 

The book also contains a practical guide for those affected and their relatives. How can you plan accessibility, how can you avoid bedsores or to whom can you turn if you need support during nursing care?

Alphabetical EU encyclopaedia

... from A for "agencies" to Z for “Zentralbank” (Central Bank)

The brochure tries to describe the European Union, its institutions as well as European and related Austrian facts and policies in a brief and concise manner, like an encyclopaedia, making them understandable. Of course, this brochure does not claim to be exhaustive. Some representations are deliberately trenchant and will of course meet with protest from some. However, the aim is not to present another "EU Jubilee Brochure", but rather something that is intended to inspire readers to reflect critically.

Thus it is up to the reader to judge whether all the institutions of the European Union in this dimension are really necessary for peace, freedom and democracy, or are not rather counterproductive.