Far-right party wins Austria’s general election – but may struggle to form a government

The far-right Freedom Party won the general election in Austria.

Chaired by Herbert Kickel, former Minister of the Interior fired over the Ibiza scandalthe party took first place, overtaking the ruling conservatives, and the center-left Social Democrats came third.

Still, the party’s chances of actually governing remain unclear.

Preliminary official results showed the Freedom Party taking 29.2% of the vote, with Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s Austrian People’s Party in second place with 26.5% and the Social Democrats with 21%, according to near-full counts reported by national public broadcaster ORF.

The outgoing government, a coalition between Mr. Nehammer’s party and the Greens, lost its majority in the lower house of parliament.

Kickl has said he wants to become chancellor but would need a coalition partner to become Austria’s new leader, and rivals say they will not work with him in government.

He also faced criticism for using the term “Volkskanzler,” or people’s chancellor, which the Nazis used to describe Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.

Mr. Kickl rejected this comparison.

The party has exploited concerns about immigration, inflation, Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, resulting in its strong results recent achievements of the far right elsewhere in Europe.

In its election program entitled Fortress Austria, the Freedom Party called for the “re-migration of uninvited foreigners” to achieve a more “homogeneous” nation.

The party also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia, is critical of Western military aid to Ukraine and wants to leave the European Sky Shield Initiative – an anti-missile defense project – launched by Germany.

In a speech ending the campaign on Saturday, Kickl said that the sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine hurt Austria even more than Russia.

Speaking separately with other party leaders at ORF, he said: “We don’t have to change our position because we have always said we are ready to lead the government, we are ready to push for this change on the Austrian side, shoulder to shoulder with the people.”

Nehammer described Kickel as a “security threat” to the country.

Together with other political leaders, he stated that he would not form a coalition with Kickel.

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If the Freedom Party fails to form a government, an alternative could be an alliance of the People’s Party with the Social Democrats – with or without the liberal Neos, who won 9% of the vote.

Who is Herbert Kickl?

After the Ibiza scandal in 2019, 55-year-old Herbert Kickl became the leader of the FPO in 2021.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Kickl took part in anti-lockdown protests and called Israel’s mass vaccination campaign “health apartheid.”

He also refused to condemn those who compared the lockdown measures to the Holocaust, despite Austria’s strict laws against anti-Semitism.

In an interview with Austrian news site ORF, he rejected claims that those making the comparison were trivializing the Nazi regime.

Last March, he and other FPO members left the Austrian parliament while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was speaking before the chamber.

The far-right victory in Austria follows similar successes elsewhere in Europe.

Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, whose party dominates the new Dutch government, congratulated the Freedom Party on social media.

As did Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-chair Alice Weidel, whose party won the recent state elections for the first time.