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The following text has been machine translated from the German with no human editing.
Just as the fronts in the Ukraine war have solidified in the east of the country, so too have the attitudes of people in Austria solidified, depending on which party they feel they belong to. The war in Eastern Europe is a highly politicised and polarising issue in the Alpine country. As in Germany, there are parties there that want to use the war to their advantage with clear positions for or against Russia or Ukraine. Extreme right-wing (FPÖ, MFG) and extreme left-wing parties (KPÖ) show understanding for Russian aggression, similar to the AfD on the right and the Left Party and BSW on the left in Germany. The centrist parties are clearly on the side of Ukraine's supporters on this issue.
But how do the parties' attitudes shape the attitudes of their voters? Martin Ulrich, a research assistant at Professor Martin Schröder's Chair of Sociology, wanted to find out more. He was particularly interested in how important the issue of peace in Europe is to individuals and what their attitudes are towards refugees from Ukraine. To this end, he examined data from the Austrian data set 'Value in Crisis', which collected such data before and after the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.
'The data shows that "securing peace in Europe" is the second most important political concern in Austria after rising prices,' explains Martin Ulrich. 'At the same time, however, there is a clear division along party political lines. Supporters of the right-wing FPÖ and the left-wing KPÖ attach significantly less importance to the issue than voters of the centrist parties,' Ulrich continues. Both parties focus their supporters much more on issues that are close to their ideology, such as migration and crime in the case of the FPÖ, and poverty and social issues in the case of the KPÖ. 'As a result, the war recedes into the background as a major political issue,' concludes Martin Ulrich, who recently published his study in the journal European Politics and Society.
As a second central research question, he also examined how Austrians feel about Ukrainian refugees. 'Here, too, we see that these attitudes are clearly influenced by party preferences,' Martin Ulrich concludes. While a large part of the population has a rather positive attitude towards Ukrainian refugees, supporters of the right-wing parties FPÖ and MFG show above-average negative attitudes. In contrast, supporters of the Greens and the social democratic SPÖ are particularly open-minded towards Ukrainians in their country. 'It is surprising that KPÖ supporters – unlike many left-wing parties in other European countries – do not show significantly more positive attitudes towards refugees. This suggests that communist parties differ from other left-wing parties in this respect,' Martin Ulrich states.
Another interesting finding from the study is the fact that the current results shown in the data can already be predicted from the data for 2021, i.e. before the start of the war in Ukraine. 'This suggests that respondents do not support the parties because they reflect their opinions, but rather that the parties influence the opinions of their supporters,' says Martin Ulrich. In other words, political parties play up an issue in their desired direction until their supporters adopt their position. At the same time, the data from Austria confirms the political science assumption that people often interpret political events in line with their party affiliation.
'Overall, the study shows that the politicisation of the war in Ukraine clearly has an impact on the population in Austria. Different party affiliations not only lead to different perceptions of politics, but also to noticeable polarisation,' says sociologist Ulrich. 'This shows how political conflicts that are visible at the elite level are also anchored in society through party political orientation.' According to the researcher, other factors such as personal values, media use and personal economic situation also influence people's attitudes. 'Nevertheless, the study impressively shows how powerful party political signals can be – especially in times of crisis when people are looking for guidance.'
Original publication:
Ulrich, M. (2026). Party support impacts individual salience and attitudes. Studying the politicisation of the Ukraine war with Austrian panel survey data. European Politics and Society, Online first, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/23745118.2026.2615460
Further information:
Dr Martin Ulrich
Tel.: (0681) 3022322
Email martin.ulrich(at)uni-saarland.de
