Six months down the line – little has changed

There has been little change so far in the aftermath of the UK Referendum on EU Membership

In May, I asked three British citizens living in Austria in favour of the UK leaving the EU for their thoughts about the referendum and also how things would be if the UK were to decide to leave the EU. Two replied back then, and now six months down the road, I asked them to say how they feel the situation has changed, how they found out the news etc. The first response came from a Briton living in Western Austria – their previous response to some questions I set is here. I also welcomed their comments on the situation in the Austrian Presidential election and the US Presidential election. The first response is here.

Continue reading “Six months down the line – little has changed”

A collective sigh of relief from Austria – Putting the Bundespräsidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung to bed

Austria’s Presidential Election is finally over, Renzi loses in Italy and the Supreme Court Hearing takes place…

In a year where the only certainty has been uncertainty – particularly as far as election results have been concerned, the acceptance of the result in the postponed re-run of the run-off for the President Election was a relief – marking at least in Austria the end of the political year dominated by the “Bundespräsidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung“. Back in May, with Van der Bellen and Norbert Hofer too close to separate from physical votes cast, we had had a nervous weight for a result – Austria’s news providers’ webservers crashing seemed to collude to make the announced results at 4pm on the Monday  back in May after a Sunday vote even more tense. Continue reading “A collective sigh of relief from Austria – Putting the Bundespräsidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung to bed”

A question of citizenship

The bond of citizenship this year has been a waivering one for me…

A post in the “The 48%”, a Facebook group of Remain supporters, popped up from another Briton in Austria earlier in the autumn, who had just arrived at the decision to choose to naturalise as an Austrian citizen, in so doing of course having to renounce his UK citizenship. Since contact with him, I have also made contact to other UK citizens in Austria within the group, and weighed up our collective plights. Continue reading “A question of citizenship”