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Speaker 1: Time to catch up with UK corresponding Devin Gray, who's

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Speaker 1: with us this evening? Hi, Gevin, Hi there, Jack, So

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Speaker 1: talk to us about this far right Freedom Party in

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Speaker 1: Austria just under thirty percent of the vote, meaning it

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Speaker 1: is celebrating what is an historic election victory.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it sure is sensitive times of course with Austria

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Speaker 2: when you're talking about the far right and its links

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Speaker 2: of course to Hitler and the war. But the party

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Speaker 2: of the far right, the Freedom Party, won by almost

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Speaker 2: three points ahead of the more conservative People's Party. However,

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Speaker 2: it is far short of forming a majority, and that's

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Speaker 2: going to be the issue because most of the other

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Speaker 2: parties are ruling out categorically joining in any type of

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Speaker 2: coalition with the FPO. That said, one of them says, yes,

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Speaker 2: I might join it, but not with the current leader

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Speaker 2: as leader. Why are they so sensitive? Well, because the

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Speaker 2: fire In leader, Herbert Keekl, has promised Austrians to build

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Speaker 2: Fortress of Austria, as he's described it, to restore their security,

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Speaker 2: prosperity and peace. He's also described himself as the volks

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Speaker 2: cancelor that's called People's Chancellor. And I'm afraid that's what

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Speaker 2: Adolf Hitler used to describe himself as in Nazi Germany,

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Speaker 2: and indeed the party was founded by Nazis in the

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Speaker 2: nineteen fifties, and two days before the votes, some of

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Speaker 2: its candidates were caught on video singing an SS song

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Speaker 2: at a funeral. Anyway, they've won the battle, will now

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Speaker 2: be on to tranform some sort of a government. The

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Speaker 2: issues of migration asylum were very high up on this.

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Speaker 2: This could be bad news for Ukraine as well. They

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Speaker 2: promised to turn the tap off of funding them much

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Speaker 2: more pro Russian and it'll be a huge thorn in

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Speaker 2: the side of the EU Bloc, which now has a

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Speaker 2: right wing Italian government and also far right support in

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Speaker 2: France and the Netherlands too.

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Speaker 1: So what is the likelihood given that this leader is

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Speaker 1: going to stand down, given he is individually so popular

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Speaker 1: and undoubtedly charismetic, regardless of his politics, is there any

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Speaker 1: real possibility that will stand down so they can actually

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Speaker 1: form a coalition and govern.

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Speaker 2: Well, I wouldn't have thought. So there might be some

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Speaker 2: sort of middle ground where maybe he's not the leader

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Speaker 2: on paper or by name, but you know, he's got

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Speaker 2: some other title. But as you said, he's popular, so

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Speaker 2: It's unlikely he's going to just sort of decide to go,

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Speaker 2: but there will be pressure on the other parties, I think,

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Speaker 2: to actually form a coalition. This is what people voted for. However,

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Speaker 2: when the Freedom Party, the right wing far right one

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Speaker 2: in the Netherlands, the leader Hurt Wilders, agreed to drop

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Speaker 2: his bid to become prime minister so that three other

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Speaker 2: parties would agree to form a coalition with his.

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Speaker 1: This is a phenomenon, we're saying right across Europe, right

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Speaker 1: as anywhere in Europe not experiencing a such in popularity

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Speaker 1: for far right parties.

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Speaker 2: Well, i'd look I put some kind of point to

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Speaker 2: the UK because of course we've gone from center right

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Speaker 2: to center left, but we're definitely against the trend.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, very good point. Speaking of the

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Speaker 1: UK government, they've titled Rules around Ministerial Hospitality.

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Speaker 2: What a start to the premiership this has been for

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Speaker 2: the Labor Party, the new government as of early July,

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Speaker 2: they've had an absolute terrible a week of their own making, really,

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Speaker 2: with the announcement of lots and lots of freebies having

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Speaker 2: been accepted within just the first few weeks of power.

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Speaker 2: So the Prime Minister Sirkirstarma originally declared about thirty five

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Speaker 2: thousand pounds worth of new clothes and he declared those

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Speaker 2: as work for his private office. That's going to be recategorized.

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Speaker 2: We've had other scandals of tickets, but now the government

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Speaker 2: is saying it's going to tighten up on these transparency rules.

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Speaker 2: So when a minister receives hospitality linked to their government job,

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Speaker 2: they've normally declared in their MPs register. They very rarely

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Speaker 2: do declare it by their departments that that's going to

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Speaker 2: be a specific requirement to do that under these new rules.

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Speaker 2: And also they have to put a figure on how

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Speaker 2: much it's worth. They haven't had to do in the past.

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Speaker 2: And incidentally, all this has come up in the first

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Speaker 2: few weeks of his premiership. The next list, which governs

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Speaker 2: the next period of time, is due to come up

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Speaker 2: just later this startup our.

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Speaker 1: It does seem like a bit of an own goal

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Speaker 1: for ken Stahmer, isn't it. I mean, you know, they

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Speaker 1: were all about, you know, restoring standards an office, or

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Speaker 1: at least they seem to be during the election campaign,

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Speaker 1: trying to differentiate themselves from the Lewis Truss's and Boris

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Speaker 1: Johnson's maybe lest of the richie sunex but certainly the

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Speaker 1: conservative leadership style that had defined a couple of those

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Speaker 1: conservative prime ministers. It just seems like such an avoidable

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Speaker 1: kind of era, don't you think.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely a complete misstep, and plenty of people have

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Speaker 2: been pointing that out. And it isn't just the prime minister,

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Speaker 2: it's other senior members of his team as well, and

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Speaker 2: one a labor MP has quit as well, saying it's

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Speaker 2: been absolutely.

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Speaker 1: Disgusting, Gavin. The number of uni aged students needing support

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Speaker 1: for eating disorders has more than double than recent years.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, very sad. This according to a charity which offers

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Speaker 2: to support to people over the phone, basically saying that

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Speaker 2: in a period from eight Pril twenty three to March

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Speaker 2: twenty four, their sessions are numbered more than fifteen thousand

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Speaker 2: helps calls for help from eighteen to twenty two year

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Speaker 2: olds and that's up from six thy six hundred for

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Speaker 2: the same period twenty nineteen to twenty two. So over

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Speaker 2: the last five years than the calls for help of

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Speaker 2: more than doubled. Some of it, yes, managing of finances,

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Speaker 2: because of course life as a student can be tough,

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Speaker 2: but managing groceries, getting to class on time, anxiety, being

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Speaker 2: away from home, new way of working and studying, meeting

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Speaker 2: new friends. All of this, of course comes Most people

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Speaker 2: seem to sort of fine with it, but there does

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Speaker 2: seem to be this growing, I don't know, lack of

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Speaker 2: certainty about yourself, like a confidence about yourself, which is

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Speaker 2: deeply concerning. So they're calling for more mental health centers

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Speaker 2: to be set up in universities to this.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I wonder if it's interesting, right, because COVID has

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Speaker 1: isolated people, but you know, you're wonder to what extent.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's hard to understand, but that phenomenon has

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Speaker 1: kind of has has influenced the surge.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's it's been very So it's also been

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Speaker 2: seen in hospitals as well, which has seen an increase

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Speaker 2: in eating disorder referrals up eighty two percent since twenty

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Speaker 2: nineteen twenty twenty. So yeah, it's not just UNIS, but

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Speaker 2: it is young people affected the most, and it is

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Speaker 2: affecting both those unis and the National Health Service.

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Speaker 1: Really appreciate your time as always, given that as you can.

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Speaker 1: Europe correspondent Gavin Gray for more from Hither Dupless Alan Drive.

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