Austria's Green party will pay a high price for its dangerous alliance with the right | Benjamin Opratko

In coalition with the People's party, the Greens are enabling anti-immigration policies. Environmentalists elsewhere must not follow suitSince Tuesday Austria has been ruled, for the first time in its history, by a coalition government between the conservative People's party (ÖVP) and the Greens. It is an unlikely partnership, not least because the ÖVP is one of the most rightwing of Europe's conservative parties. Since taking control of the party in 2017, Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian chancellor, has transformed it into a hard-right, anti-immigrant outfit, successfully cannibalising the voter base of the populist far-right Freedom party (FPÖ), his coalition partner from 2017 until May last year. The previous government ended with a bang, when then-FPÖ leader and vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache had to resign over a corruption scandal. Related: Austria's Greens vote to enter government with People's party Continue reading...