Populism or Neo-Authoritarianism in Diversified Europe? Comparing Poland and Austria

Over the past two years, both Poland and Austria have experienced a surge in nationalist and anti-migration sentiments. Right-wing parties rose to new heights in Poland in 2015 and in Austria in 2017, as they became either the only ruling party (Poland following the parliamentary election in October 2015) or are about to influence the government either as a part of it or the largest opposition party (Austria following the parliamentary election in October 2017). The pressing question in this regard is how the practices of democratic decision-making on the one hand and the very understanding of statehood are about to change in Poland and in Austria. Observers and pundits have argued that right-wing populism across Europe is a consequence of a new cleavage of Euroscepticism vs. Euroenthusiasm that became a new defining characteristic of the EU’s political landscape. However, the most relevant development is related to the identity of the new dominant political actors in both states: Both are likely to use their electoral legitimacy to modify the relationships of the majority towards ethnic, gender and opinion minorities in their societies. Against this backdrop, the article investigates how the dominant political groups in Poland and Austria frame the very issue of minorities (both recognized ethnic/national minorities, refugees/migrants and gender minorities) and their role in the respective polities. In order to approach this problématique, the article will proceed in three steps. Firstly, it explores the discursive practices of the dominant political groups vis-à-vis ethnic/national minorities as well as regarding the refugees from the MENA region. In particular, I will focus on post-Yugoslav minorities in Austria and the growing Ukrainian minority in Poland and explore how these minorities have been discursively framed by the dominant political groups after 2015 in Poland and after 2017 in Austria. Secondly, it discusses the positioning of the minorities vis-a-vis the political rhetoric in favour of majoritarian decision making by the nationalist governments in the countries at hand. Thirdly, it problematizes the recombination of the majority-minority-nexus against the background of two concepts: exclusionary politicization by the dominant groups and de facto exclusion from active citizenship as is experienced by the minorities.