The British referendum on membership of the EU could herald the “slow goodbye of the European idea” unless politicians learn their lessons from it, Austria’s new chancellor has said.
“Whatever the outcome of the British referendum, afterwards Europe will not be able to shy away from a few much-needed debates,” Christian Kern said in his first interview with the international press since being parachuted to the top of Austrian politics a month ago.
Speaking to the Guardian, Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza, France’s Le Monde and Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung, Kern said that a British exit from the EU would lead to “enormous economic upheaval and a shift in the continent’s political balance”. He added: “Especially when it comes to foreign policy, Great Britain is an extremely important partner.”
But the Social Democrat claimed he would watch Thursday’s referendum “with a certain serenity” because he believed fundamental reforms were necessary whatever the outcome.
“We have to clear up some fundamental issues in Europe irrespective of whether Brexit or remain will win,” he said. “Even without Britain, neoliberal ideas dominate in Europe and one of the challenges for the EU will have to be not just to engage with the four fundamental freedoms [free movement of goods, capital, people and services], but also the question of how our welfare system in Europe has to be clarified. If we ignore that, then that’s a slow goodbye to the European idea.”
Speaking before Marine Le Pen, of France’s far-right Front National, called on all 28 member states to hold their own referendums, Kern said he would not hold a vote on EU membership: “At the end of the day, we who lead this country also have a certain responsibility and you don’t have to give in to every call for a referendum. On such a question, I would not submit Austria to a referendum.”
The 50-year-old Kern, formerly the head of Austria’s railway company ÖBB, has taken on the chancellorship of his country at a tumultuous time. His predecessor, Werner Faymann, in power since 2008, resigned after he said he had lost the trust of his party in the face of a far-right surge for the Freedom party (FPÖ).
Last month, Austria nearly voted in the EU’s first rightwing populist president, after the FPÖ candidate, Norbert Hofer, narrowly lost to Green-backed Alexander Van der Bellen in a bitterly fought contest. The Freedom party is currently trying to appeal against the result in front of Austria’s constitutional court.
“If you look at the confrontation between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, or the Trump phenomenon, then you see: populists thrive on being able to send out a clear message. They tell people where and how decisions are made. Our problem in Europe is that we have a lot of questions that can no longer be answered on a national stage.
“In Europe, an impression is being created that politics has lost the means to intervene into people’s living conditions. We have to find a clearer message.”
Kern said leftwing parties around Europe needed to reconsider their strategy in dealing with populist parties, with criticism focused on their track record once they had come into power. “In Carinthia, the FPÖ pushed the region to the edge of bankruptcy and left behind a complete mess. We have to call them out on this much more,” he said.
Reacting to the murder of the British Labour MP Jo Cox, Kern said the incident was “further proof of how quickly violent words can turn into violent deeds”. He added: “On social media, you see people falling into parallel worlds that we can no longer get them back out of. How do you get back these people who believe that all media and all journalists are lying to them?”
In recent months, Austria has witnessed not only a surge in support for the FPÖ , but also increased high-profile stunts and protests by the so-called Identitarian movement, a far-right activist group originally derived from France’s far-right and anti-immigrant youth movement Génération Identitaire, which consciously copies the methods of protest groups such as Antifa and Greenpeace.
Last weekend, up to 1,000 Identitarian supporters gathered for a protest in Vienna, chanting: “Homeland, freedom, tradition, end of the line for multiculturalism.” While the group has often been dismissed as media-savvy but politically ineffective, Kern said recent events should prompt a rethink about the group’s legality.
The Identitarian movement, he said, was “a movement that is generally considered to be rightwing extremist; if you saw what they did in Vienna last week, it reminds you of the marches in the 1930s, with flags and all the trimmings. We have to think about whether we are too tolerant.”
Asked whether the group should be banned, Kern said: “Until last week, I would have denied that but, in the meantime, I have started to have my doubts. Three weeks ago, I also said that we have managed to accept 90,000 refugees without seeing any arson attacks on asylum seekers’ homes. In the meantime, we’ve had an instance like that. Things can change quickly.”
Kern’s predecessor went from being one of the key supporters of Angela Merkel’s open-border strategy at the height of the refugee crisis to one of its most active critics, and the Austrian foreign minister, Sebastian Kurz, was one of the key players behind the closure of the Balkan route in March.
Asked if he felt the German chancellor had made a mistake when she suspended the Dublin agreement for Syrian refugees last summer, Kern said: “We were all surprised by the scale of migration movements. You can only judge such decisions in the context of the time.
“Back then, Angela Merkel’s actions were justified. If you look now at what lengths the German chancellor is going to with Turkey, then it is clear that she wants a change of direction. I don’t want to imagine what happens when the Turkey deal fails.”
