Interview: Greater understanding of problems needed to overcome populist trends in Europe

Current political systems in Austria and Europe at large must better understand problems and deliver adequate solutions so as to overcome populist trends, an Austrian politician has told Xinhua.

Erhard Busek, former Austrian vice-chancellor, said governments in Europe have up to now not been able to deliver on these issues, often because of being unable to understand them properly.

This in turn has led to an atmosphere of being "fed up" with aspects of the democratic system, said Busek, now Chairman of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe.

The dissatisfaction of the voters for the time being would represent continuous support for populist parties.

Busek argued populism is in, and of, itself a "very primitive way to react."

He took aim at the media, including social media, for going in the direction of populism, both left and right, and neglecting to report facts.

But the former Austrian politician seems not be worried about the populism in his own country, saying that this populism should not be confused with nationalism.

Although there is dissatisfaction, Austria and other European countries are still very well off, with comparatively better living standards than most of the rest of the world.

There are fears in Austria that the influx of migrants might give rise to the populism due to possible job losses.

Busek dismisses it, saying that the Vienna hospital system is filled with workers from neighboring countries, and that these are jobs that Austrians do not wish to do anyway.

Besides, unemployed people in Austria receive a significant amount of financial support via social insurance.

"You can't find them on the streets because they have enough money," Busek argued.

Concerns over jobs cuts as a result of technological progress in areas like the banking sector are somewhat justified, he said.

But he remains optimistic too.

There was, he said, a belief in the nineteenth century that the industrial revolution would destroy all jobs, but this did not happen. Instead new jobs came about.

In terms of globalization, nonetheless, in his eyes, Europe still has a lot to learn about it, he said.

He said a big part of the problem is that learning about globalization has not yet taken place, and any progress is happening too slowly.

The Austrian politician urged EU member states to learn to work together, or the EU will "pay a price".

There are great challenges to be tackled, including economic and banking problems, he said.

In addition, the EU has over 20 percent of global economic power with only 7 percent of the world's population. If it wishes to maintain this, it will need to do something.

This will have to include a migration plan, he argued, noting that the proportion of the European population to the rest of the world would otherwise slip down by several percentage points by 2025. Endit