- Articles
- Hits: 944
The phenomenon of the development of Austrian politics absorbed various historical eras. In the era of European modernization, the Austrian lands entered as the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918) with two centers in Vienna and Budapest. Territorially, the empire included Ukrainian lands, in particular, Galicia and Bukovina. The empire also controlled the Adriatic Sea, and before the formation of a single Italy (1870), the Austro-Hungarian Empire had direct access to the Mediterranean Sea. The Danube was an imperial river and an important trade route. So, at this stage, the field of Austrian politics geographically had access to the Black, Adriatic and Mediterranean seas. Considering the close contacts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with the German Empire, it can be said that Vienna also had access to the Baltic Sea. Various vectors of Austrian political, trade, and defense interests remain imperatives for Vienna even after two world wars.
The Black Sea and the Balkans were a point of conflict between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its historical rivals, the Russian and Ottoman Empires. During the First World War, Austria-Hungary, in alliance with the German Empire, tried to destroy the Russian Empire. Especially since Russia claimed to return Bukovina and Halychyna (Galicia) to its composition. In order to counteract this, Vienna and Berlin were ready to develop a strategic project of the formation of Central Europe as a zone of influence of two empires: the Austro-Hungarian and German empires.
Two revolutions of 1917 (February and October) temporarily removed the Russian Empire from the geopolitical game. In the spring of 1918, Austro-Hungarian troops, together with German troops, entered the territory of Ukraine. However, in reality, there was no joint strategic vision of Vienna and Berlin regarding the future of Ukrainian lands. Part of the Habsburg family claimed to declare Vasyl Vyshivany the Hetman of Ukraine, which contradicted the German attitude towards Hetman P. Skoropadskyi. It is also worth understanding that the Habsburgs had no idea what to do with the Slavic population of their own empire. In the fall of 1918, it became clear that the Germans and Austrians had lost the war. At the end of November 1918, Polish statehood was restored, Czechoslovakia was declared independent, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the prototype of Yugoslavia, was formed in the Balkans. The former Austro-Hungarian Empire shrunk to the size of Austria and Hungary proper, the territory of which was limited under the terms of the Saint-Germain Peace Treaty of 1919. Austria was forbidden to unite with the Weimar Republic, formed on the ruins of the German Empire. This became a trauma for the Austrian collective consciousness and stimulated the idea of returning Austrians to the «German world». In March 1938, Hitler carried out the Anschluss of Austria, which motivated the Austrians to fight on the side of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. The defeat of the Third Reich in May 1945 opened a new page in Austrian history. The Austrian lands were divided among the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition. Vienna was also occupied by American, British and Soviet troops. Only after the death of Y. Stalin in March 1953 did it become possible to resolve the «Austrian question». In May 1955, the Soviet «collective leadership» agreed to sign the Treaty on the Permanent Neutrality of Austria.
The idea and practical policy of permanent neutrality became the basis of Austrian identity. In 1955-1994, Austria played the role of a bridge between rival socio-political and military-political blocs (the European Economic Community and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, between NATO and the Warsaw Pact Organization). Only the end of the Cold War changed the attitude of Austrians towards participation in the process of European integration. But Vienna defined the preservation of neutrality as a condition for such participation. Of course, the Austrians were not excluded from the conflict in the Balkans after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in 1991-1999. After Austria became a member of the European Union on January 1, 1995, Vienna remained a «treasury» for Russian capital. It is no accident that the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank has not yet left the Russian financial market, having voluntarily turned into one of the Kremlin's tools for circumventing the sanctions regime. As a result, the Russian-Ukrainian war is a means of earning money for the Austrian economy. Moreover, Vienna uses its former imperial territories Hungary and Serbia as de facto allies of the Kremlin to play with (as of the end of February 2024) 13 «packages» of sanctions from the European Union. Therefore, Austria is not interested in the transformation of Eastern Europe as a result of the defeat of the Russian Federation in the war against Ukraine. At the beginning of the 21st century, Austria had ambitions to become the hub of the «Northern European» and «Southern European» gas pipelines bypassing the territory of Ukraine. Austrian Baumgarten was supposed to be the center of distribution of Russian gas for European consumers. After the occupation of Crimea in March 2014, Putin reminded the Austrians that they owned western Ukrainian lands. But the Austrians survived the imperial resentment. However, this did not prevent the Austrians from standing in solidarity with the Hungarian Prime Minister V. Orbán regarding bargaining for each position in the sanctions regime against Russia. The Austrians hoped that Ukraine would be «sold out» of the implementation of the Minsk agreements and that business with the Russian Federation would develop as usual. Therefore, unlike such members of the European Union as Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, who see Ukraine as a barrier to the spread of Russian influence in Europe, Austria inertially perceives Ukraine as a sphere of Russian influence. Therefore, the idea of the Baltic-Black Sea Union project does not correspond to the Austrian strategic vision of the development of Eastern Europe. Vienna is ready to negotiate with Moscow about its interests between the Baltic and the Black Sea.
But the dependence of the Austrian economy on Germany excludes the imposition of a veto by Austria on sanctions against the Russian Federation, especially after the «change of eras» in East European policy of Germany. But in matters of migration control, Austria is closer to the position of the opposition German party Alternative for Germany. For example, in 2023, Austria agreed with Serbia and Hungary on a tough course on illegal migrants.
The Austrian People's Party and the Austrian Social Democratic Party have a consensus on maintaining neutrality. The «Austrian Green Party» takes the same position. The «Austrian Freedom Party» is on European skeptical positions. Its entry into the ruling coalition in 2000 provoked EU sanctions against Austria, which became an exception, because after that the EU has not re-imposed such sanctions on its members. Austria does not block EU financial and military aid to Ukraine, giving Hungary the initiative in this matter.
The internal political situation in Austria can change the situation. In the fall of 2024, elections to the Austrian parliament are to be held. The Austrian Freedom Party is the leader of Austrian citizens sympathies. After Sweden and Finland joined NATO, which strengthened the position of the North Atlantic Alliance in the Baltic, Austria emphasized that it was not going to give up its neutrality. Austria emphasizes that the condition for Ukraine's entry into the European Union is the end of the war with the Russian Federation and the full fulfillment of the terms of membership in the European Union. A greater priority for Austria is the EU integration of the countries of the Western Balkans, whose territory is a direct transit route for illegal migrants arriving in Austria. The majority of Austrians are skeptical about the EU membership of Ukraine and Turkey. Austria negotiated until the last on the accession of valid EU members Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen zone. Austria is trying to maintain the status quo in the European Union and in Eastern Europe. Therefore, any new projects like the «Baltic-Black Sea Axis» and even «Three Seas» are viewed by conservative political elites and no less conservative Austrian public opinion as factors that create excessive risks for Austrian neutrality and ways of organizing profits.