In this chapter, we briefly discuss and summarise developments since 1995. We have selected three salient events and socio-political phenomena which characterise the period between 1995 and 2008 and which have had a strong impact on the construction of recent Austrian national identities.

While we continue the discussion from the last chapter, it is important to emphasise specifically that ‘neutrality’, which was already considered to be obsolete, has made a surprising ‘comeback’ in the Austrian debates (see p. 202; see also Kovács and Wodak 2003). This development is tied to recent global crises and wars such as 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the successor states of former Yugoslavia.

Secondly, in 1995 Austria joined the EU and has since held the EU presidency twice. Attitudes towards the EU shifted from very positive acclamation to disappointment and Euro-scepticism. Simultaneously, the rise of the Austrian rightwing populist party FPÖ has to be reflected on and analysed with respect to attitudes towards the EU and globalising phenomena. In the past years, the Austrian rightwing populist movement has served as a model for other right-wing populist parties across Europe. Indeed, the label ‘Haiderisation’ was coined to describe local and regional protest movements which endorse nationalism, chauvinism, revisionism, EU-scepticism and racist, xenophobic beliefs.

Thirdly, we compare selected debates and rhetorical patterns (in political speeches and focus group discussions) surrounding the commemorative year 2005 with the analyses of the same genres in 1995 (see Chapters 4 and 5).