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KLEINE ZEITUNG
The Kleine Zeitung is the largest regional daily in Austria. It is based in Graz and Klagenfurt. Founded in 1904, the newspaper covers both national and regional news topics.
Photo of a woman walking in Kyiv next to a disused Russian tank
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

World Front Pages As Ukraine Marks Independence Day & 6 Months Of War

Ukraine is marking a somber independence day that coincides with the six-month milestone of the Russian invasion. Here’s how newspapers around the world are covering the event.

Every year on August 24, Ukraine celebrates its 1991 independence from the Soviet Union. The anniversary of the peaceful transition is traditionally marked by military parades and other displays of patriotic pride across the country.

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.

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But this year, celebrations will be subdued, as the event coincides with the grim milestone of six months since Russia launched its large-scale invasion of the country.

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University teachers in Yangon raise the three finger salute to protest the military coup in Myanmar
BBC

The Latest: COVID In Japan, Navalny's Doctor Dies, $60 Million Password

Welcome to Friday, where Myanmar trouble deepens, Navalny's doctor dies and $60 million in Bitcoin is lost behind a password. We also look at one country trying to figure out where it fits in with the global rush to do business with China.

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Newly elected Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz
Geopolitics

Austria-Hungary And Far-Right Echoes Of History

-Analysis-

Is this the "return of Austria-Hungary"? Following the formation of the new right-wing government in Vienna, acknowledging the like-minded leadership next door in Budapest is a legitimate point — even if imagining the Austro-Hungarian empire rising from the ashes seems far-fetched. It's also worth noting that this provocative historical analogy, as reported by Berlin-based daily Die Welt, was offered up by politicians in Germany. Sure, from the German point of view, it is a preferable reference for a far right on the rise than a much more obvious one.

Yes, in Europe, history is never far behind.

The march of more recent history includes the watershed decision in 2015 of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to allow into Europe a massive influx of refugees. The reverberations have now become particularly visible in Austria, where a coalition government of conservatives and far-right party FPÖ was sworn in yesterday, two months after a general election that saw the triumph of the improbably young Sebastian Kurz, leader of the People's Party (ÖVP). The 31-year-old's victory was only made possible by his hard-line stance on immigration and Islam, which was directly inspired by the FPÖ, making a coalition between the two seem like a natural fit. Kurz is now Europe's youngest leader, and the FPÖ the most powerful far-right party on the continent, as it controls Austria's interior, foreign and defense ministries.

As a result, some observers like Deutsche Welle's Bernd Riegert, are expecting to see Austria cosying up to the so-called Visegrad Group, an alliance that brings together Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary — all central and eastern European countries led by right-wing populist governments opposed to immigration policies and refugee quotas decided in Brussels.

"Together, they could play the nationalist card and show EU headquarters in Brussels the middle finger," Riegert writes.

"Let's get to work!" — Austrian daily Kleine Zeitung"s Dec. 19 front page

But attention will now swing back to the continent's historical power. For in Germany, too, the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland has become a kingmaker of sorts, albeit for different reasons. Its spectacular rise and the 13% it garnered in the September election, coinciding with an equally spectacular setback for the Socialists and Angela Merkel's CDU, has thrown a spanner in the works of coalition-building.

It's been three months since the election, and Germany still doesn't have a government. Since the collapse of coalition talks with the Green Party and the liberals from the FDP, Merkel's only remaining options are to convince a reluctant and badly bruised Socialist Party to stay on in the grand coalition that's been ruling since 2013 — and therefore make the AfD the biggest opposition party in Parliament — or to form a minority government, something for which there is no precedent in Germany.

The momentum that started in 2015 continues to be with the populists. What will history hold for 2018? Eurosceptics are rising in the polls ahead of Italian national elections and deadlocked Brexit negotiations are sure to test the very foundations of Europe. But posterity will also note that 2017 was the year a committed and charismatic (and also young) defender of the European Union named Emmanuel Macron defeated the daughter of a French post-fascist named Le Pen. Yes, history keeps marching in Europe — in which direction, we still can't quite tell.

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Austria Presidential Razor Close

VIENNA — The front page of the Kleine Zeitung daily on Monday puts into stark colors the hard split down the center of Austria, as the presidential elections remain deadlocked, pending the counting of write-in ballots.

By midday Monday far-right presidential candidate Hobert Hofer, from the populist Freedom Party (FPÖ), hhad obtained 51.9% of the votes, to 48.1% for his opponent, Alexander Van der Bellen, who ran as an independent.

Election officials expect by Monday night the remaining 900,000 postal votes — around 14% of Austria's 6.4 million eligible voters — will be tallied. If elected, Hofer would become the first far-right president in the European Union since 1945. He focused his campaign on the refugee crisis, after more than 90,000 people last year sought asylum in Austria, equivalent to 1% of the country population.