The general elections in Austria have delivered a sensational result, with the hard right, pro-Putin Freedom party (FPO) coming out on top for the first time in the Alpine republic’s post-second world war history.
Projections after Sunday’s poll give the FPO 29 per cent – a three point lead over their nearest rivals, the conservative People’s party (OVP) under Chancellor Karl Nehammer on 26 per cent.
The result does not necessarily mean that the FPO will form the new government, as it lacks an absolute majority, and all the other parties have vowed not to form a coalition with the FPO’s victorious controversial leader, Herbert Kickl, a 55-year-old hardline former interior minister known for opposing lockdowns during the Covid pandemic. Speaking to his supporters at a rally in Vienna, Kickl said his party had opened a door to a ‘new era’, and called for change: ‘The voters have spoken with authority. This is a clear statement that things cannot continue like this in this country.’
Like the AfD in neighbouring Germany, the FPO’s recent rise has been largely attributable to popular fears of mass immigration. This was further fuelled this summer when an Islamist plot to bomb a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna was foiled by police with several arrests.
Attention will now focus on Austria’s President, Alexander Van der Bellen of the Green party, who has the constitutional duty of naming the new Chancellor.
It is possible that he will invite the FPO to form a coalition with the OVP – but refuse to choose Kickl as Chancellor. A similar situation arose in 2000 when the FPO first went into government with the OVP – but their controversial leader Jorg Haider was left out in the cold after the EU threatened to impose sanctions on Austria.
More recently, Geert Wilders, whose anti-Islam populist Party for Freedom came top of elections in the Netherlands, was also left out of the coalition government that followed that poll.
It is difficult to see though, how long the establishment parties in Europe can continue to hold the line against hard right populist parties if they keep on winning elections.