Posted on 12/03/2016 4:00:04 AM PST by Nextrush
They say the third time is a charm and for the third time this year, a runoff election for president of Austria is set for tomorrow, December 4th.
The first runoff earlier this year resulted in victory for leftist candidate Alexander van der Bellen over Nationalist candidate Norbert Hofer.
But Hofer's Austrian Freedom Party challenged the election in court alleging irregularities in postal ballots (absentee votes). And they won.
A second election was set for early this fall but the government decided to cancel the vote when early postal ballots were discovered to have irregularities in them. Polling data at the time showed a slight lead for Hofer.
Now tomorrow, December 4th will determine the winner. Norbert Hofer is compared to Donald Trump with his advocacy of change and belief in Austria's national identity.
A polling company says 57 percent of Hofer's supporters are convinced in their support for him, while only 39 percent of van der Bellen's voters are. That sends a signal that Hofer's voters are more determined to show up and vote tomorrow.
If Hofer wins as appears likely, he will be in a position to use his power as president to dismiss parliament and call new elections.
That may happen by spring of next year. Although the Freedom Party now leads opinion polls in Austria, it may fall short of what it needs to rule with a majority.
A possible outcome of an election next year could be all the other parties 'ganging up' and forming an anti-Freedom Party coalition.
Meanwhile in Italy a constitutional referendum will be held tomorrow. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is staking his future on the result, saying he will resign if there is NO vote.
The 'reform' proposed by the government would abolish the upper house of Italy's parliament (the Senate) as an elected body.
Its current 315 members would be trimmed to 100 with five appointed by the Prime Minister and the rest by Italy's regional legislation. The Senate would lose much of its current powers that make it equal to the lower house of the parliament (the 630 member Chamber of Deputies).
While the notion of regional legislatures appointing Senate members has the ring of the Founding Fathers of the USA, Prime Minister Renzi's 'reforms' destroy local autonomous powers Italy's regions currently have.
Political reformers-outsiders like Italy's Five Star Movement advocate a NO vote and polls currently show the NO side leading.
A win for NO could propel anti-insider forces like the Five Star Movement (they got 25 percent of vote last time in parliamentary elections) and the Northern League, a conservative movement advocating autonomy for the northern parts of Italy, into some sort of power sharing arrangement.
What is considered very likely in speculation of what follows a NO victory would be a referendum on Italy leaving the European Union currency, the Euro.
A vote for YES there would be a serious blow to the European Union.
If the anti Globalist-Corporatist side wins both election contests Sunday, there will be strong momentum going into next years set of elections where the anti-elite forces face an uphill fight (are the polls accurate?).
1. Parliamentary elections in the Netherlands (March 15th with Geert Wilders Party of Freedom leading polls short of a majority in parliament)
2. The French Presidential election with a First Round April 23rd and the Second Round involving the top two candidates May 7th. (Marine LePen of the National Front polling at 29 percent in a first round contest, but the recent media hype over the selection of the conservative talker Francois Fillon by The Republicans has led to polling showing Fillon winning a second round contest with over 60 percent of the vote).
3. The French Parliamentary elections will follow the Presidential election on June 8th with the party winning the powerful position of president in France expected to follow up with a victory in this election.
Some elections to watch this weekend starting Sunday afternoon in the Eastern USA.
While Nigel Farage has not endorsed Marine LePen for President of France, he has said her election next year would kill the EU.
Praise to the Lamb.
It’s not spelled out above, but Corporatism (which is a term that can be used in a few different ways) is often linked with Italian Fascism. It originally referred to society as an organic body (latin “corpus”), in which all parts would work together. Of course, the State acts as the head, and all parts exist within the orbit of the State.
I say that Progressivism, Globalism and Fascism are for all intents and purposes, the same thing. The public might hear a phrase like “corporatism” or “corporate state” and simply think that Big Business is going to run everything. No. This stuff is really a collectivist, left-wing approach to controlling society through a government oversight.
As I think the author indicates, we may be at the turning of the tide, and recent elections may move the world away from Progressivism, Globalism, Fascism and Corporatism.
Corprotist globalists....... what a pant load
Anti business, anti capitalism has come to Free Republic and is alive and well
I offered a political analysis and speech of sorts here, the God thing is important.
There’s a heck of a lot of anger and rage out there.
I appreciate the dignity that Nigel Farage brings to discussion of the situation.
If anything, it's failing to recognize the monster that is masquerading as capitalism.
If anything, it's NOT failing to recognize the monster that is masquerading as capitalism.
The Hillary emails reminded us that there is a lot of business-government collusion going on.
It also reminded us that the left-wing anti-Wall Street words coming out of Hillary’s mouth were lies because in the end she was very comfortable with allowing business to do business.
She was willing to use the power of government to help business people who gave her campaign and or the Clinton Foundation money.
I read a lot of Peter Hitchens blog and columns and he points out that Marxist indoctrinated minds dominate the political class and these people see their political work as advancing a Leftist view of the world using the levers of government.
Capitalism should be creating wealth by using your own bootstaps, so to speak.
What’s going on today is big supersize multinational corporations and big banks using government regulation to dominate their marketplaces, driving smaller competitors out of business and or gobbling them up through mergers.
Make the Western World Great Again
To be anti corporatist/globalist is to be against a marriage of big business to government in a cancerous controlling position of the people expanding to control of the whole world at the expense of sovereignty,culture and freedom.
It is NOT against reasonably regulated capitalism or fair business practices.
Sounds like a ban on “postal voting” would solve some problems.
In the last British general election the political machine of the “Conservative Party” generated thousands of “postal ballots” in the constituency where Nigel Farage stood for UKIP and they were able to defeat him with their candidate.
Time to reunite Lombardy, Trentino and Venetia with Austria Felix.
Africa begins at Termini.
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