The European election campaign in Germany had hysterical traits, could be read recently in the ‘BZ’ newspaper, in an article by Gunnar Schupelius. Instead of discussing the European problems, the voters were put under pressure. The calls to vote “correctly,” i.e. not to vote for any parties critical of the EU, can no longer be ignored. What it is that the ‘right’ parties want, they don't reveal on their posters or in their statements. There you find meaningless phrases like “come together” or “Europe is the best idea Europe has ever had” or incantations to show the “populists and agitators the red card in this election.”

Behind this noisy confusion one discovers a picture that resembles the ‘national front’ of the GDR in a frightening way. The established parties have identical programs, which differ only in the detail. They all want to strengthen the central government in Brussels, open borders and the right to stay for all migrants, including all illegal immigrants. This can only happen against the will of the majority of Europeans, including Germans.

These goals are thus diametrically opposed to what Heinrich August Winkler calls the guiding principle of the founding act of the West: the ‘consent of the governed,’ the unspoken agreement of the governed with the rulers. In the preamble to the American Declaration of Independence of 1776, none other than Thomas Jefferson declared this mutual agreement to be fundamental to a functioning democracy.

At least since the summer of 2015, this agreement between the governed and those in power no longer exists, not only from Winkler's point of view. Since then, the gulf between the rulers and the governed can no longer be ignored. In a democracy, legislators and governments depend on the consent of the population. If approval is denied, they must either change their policies to restore agreement, or they must resort to dictatorial means to act against the will of the governed.

The European election campaign shows that the fervent Europeans, as the supporters of a European central state like to call themselves, have chosen the path of whipping through their policies.

Irrespective of its history, which has always ended in calamity for Germany, if it wanted the world to become more like itself, the German elites are again pushing to set the tone and tell others what to do. They are no longer content with just wanting to be ‘role models,’ but are to show other countries what they have to do. Now an Austrian government has been overthrown from within Germany. But the media loyal to the state do not seem to notice the fateful parallel – or the semblance is suppressed, because one can’t be fussy with the methods when promoting the supposedly good. What did the nefarious head of the infamous, hard-left ‘Centre for Political Beauty’ say? “We only use Nazi-methods against Nazis.” With this he put in a nutshell the point why the ugly National Socialist spirit is so frighteningly alive within his group. In those who practice Nazi-methods, the Nazi spirit lives on.

Now it is the Austrians who have been brought down by totalitarian means. The Federal German establishment is reveling in a not so very furtive joy. It visibly has no problem with the fact that German political cleansers have interfered in the internal affairs of another country – with means which are punishable in Germany, as the former head of the Federal Intelligence Service August Hanning and the former president of the Office for Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen, made clear. In an interview with ntv, Hanning spoke of intelligence service methods used here. What it means that the government of a country is no longer voted out by its own voters, but is brought down by foreign, faceless powers, of whom one only knows that they are German, cannot be contemplated without a shiver.

There may be people who want to reassure themselves that with Heinz-Christian Strache someone was hit who had it coming (to him). That is true as far as the man is concerned, but unfortunately it is head-in-sands politics. Chancellor (head of government) Sebastian Kurz will be next. Bonmots like: “Now Kurz [German for ‘short’] must be made shorter” are already circulating on the Internet. The Austrian Federal Chancellor has been on the hit list of the Left ever since his initiative to close the so-called Balkan route for migrants. When 18 months ago he took his mandate seriously and quickly formed a government after the election, according to the will of the voters, instead of performing some tortuous maneuvering as happened in Germany at the same time, which only served to preserve and cement as much power as possible, the desire to get rid of the young political star became even more urgent. Kurz became the hate-figure of the left when it turned out that his government was popular and carried out reforms that had been impossible with his previous coalition partner. For many Europeans, the Austrian government was a glimmer of hope. This model obviously had to be removed from the point of view of the Eurocrats, no matter how.

However, Sebastian Kurz contributed to the success of his enemies. Instead of perhaps demanding the resignation of the FPÖ Minister of the Interior after the rapid resignation of Strache and his group leader Johann Gudenus, but holding on to the coalition, he allowed himself to be hunted.

If he had held on to the coalition on the grounds that he would not let his government be dismantled from within Germany with punishable methods, the power struggle would have ended in his favor. In this way he could have saved his political future, which is now very uncertain.

With the FPÖ so much goodwill has been smashed that it is almost impossible to revive the coalition. It also seems unthinkable that there could be a coalition with the Left and Greens under Kurz’s chancellorship. They will demand his head as a price for the coalition.

Austria's model of hope has been shattered. We will have to wait and see how strongly this affects the European elections. It should have become clear to the voters what a slippery slope toward totalitarianism the fervent Europeans are on. What has been done to Austria is only the current low point of political decay.

Insubordinate governments are being deposed with dubious methods. The defenders of state sovereignty are denounced. The disempowerment of national parliaments is declared to be a strengthening of democracy. The established parties, whose task it is to present voters with political alternatives capable of making decisions, have abandoned this task. They are simply putting empty phrases to the vote, thereby hollowing out democracy and hardly hiding their contempt for the voters. They demonstrate that in Europe it is no longer the sovereign who decides, but a faceless and irresponsible conglomerate of politicians, the media and NGOs, who let associations such as the Centre for Political Purges and the Antifa do the dirty work.

Anyone who goes to the polls on Sunday should be aware of that.

Translated from eigentümlich frei, where the original article was published on May 22nd 2019.