Before planned coalition negotiations between the FPÖ and ÖVP in Austria, the SPD and CSU warned against any cooperation with the AfD. “Austria shows: When conservative parties push the red line to the right, it’s a danger to our democracy” said SPD General Secretary Matthias Miersch to the Bild (Wednesday edition).
“Democrats must remain willing to compromise, listen to the people, and take their concerns about their job, the increasingly expensive life, and secure pensions seriously” Miersch said. “But democratic parties must never become a prop for right-wing extremists.”
CSU State Group Leader Alexander Dobrindt said to the newspaper, “Right-wing parties” have always had the goal of fighting and destroying the bourgeois parties. This has not changed to this day. “That’s why one must maintain maximum distance and keep these parties away from responsibility and at the same time do everything to make them disappear again. This can only be achieved by solving the political problems from which the AfD draws its poison.”
In Austria, one sees what happens “when Greens in government with their reality denial further polarize society” Dobrindt said. “This strengthens radical parties.