President Habsburg?

Back in September I reported on efforts to overturn the Austrian Republic's law prohibiting members of the Habsburg family from seeking the presidency. I expressed mixed feelings, balancing the natural instinct of a monarchist to side with a Habsburg with reservations as to whether competing in a presidential election is really an appropriate thing for royalty to do, concluding that in a sense it is appropriate for the Austrian Republic to exclude the Habsburgs from its presidency--an office which from a monarchist point of view ought not to exist at all. This recent article confirms my view that Austrian monarchists should have nothing to do with trying to overturn this law. Ulrich Habsburg-Lothringen (who comes from the Tuscan branch of the dynasty and is therefore a distant cousin, not a nephew, of Otto von Habsburg) is a left-wing (Green) self-proclaimed republican who is "embarrassed" by support from monarchists. His goals are not our goals and his cause is not our cause; he fully accepts the legitimacy and permanence of the Austrian Republic and wants only to be permitted to play his part in its affairs like an ordinary citizen. This is exactly how monarchists should not want the Habsburgs to be treated, as it would reduce royal ancestry to irrelevance--arguably a far greater triumph for Jacobinism than the guillotine could have ever accomplished.

It ought to be clear that "Mr. Lothringen" (as he apparently prefers to be known) has no intention of using his political career to advance monarchical restoration or even any other political cause with which monarchists might be sympathetic, and it would be naïve to assume that anything good is likely to come from his election (a long shot in any case). He does not seem to respect either his family's legacy or those people who still believe in it, and I see no reason therefore why we should have anything to do with him. It should not surprise us if the Republic appears to fear Habsburgs more than it does Nazis, since Nazis with their belief in a progressive New Order are actually closer to its values than we are. The Austrian Republic is an abomination and the Habsburgs ought to be proud to be excluded from its worthless offices and institutions. Gott erhalte, Gott beschütze Unsern Kaiser, unser Land!