The Freedom Party is set to win a national election for the first time in its history as it taps into voters’ anxieties about immigration, inflation and the war in Ukraine.
Polls have opened in Austria’s parliamentary elections with the far-right Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreich) seemingly the most popular amongst voters who are anxious about immigration, inflation and the war in Ukraine.
Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister and long-time campaign strategist who has led the party since 2021, wants to become Austria’s new chancellor.
Speaking at a campaign rally on Friday, he demanded the “remigration” of illegal immigrants.
“It is not acceptable that we have to protect our people from the people, who are coming here looking for protection. Then something isn’t right with the system anymore. And that’s why we finally need remigration. I don’t even know why this word is supposed to be so evil,” he said.
Kickl has also sparked controversy on the campaign trail by using the term ‘Volkskanzler’, or chancellor of the people, which was used by the Nazis to describe Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.
Polls estimate the Freedom Party will take around 28% of the vote, well below the threshold needed for an outright win. But finding coalition partners might be tough.
Chancellor Karl Nehammer, whose Austrian People’s Party (Österreichische Volkspartei) is polling second at 24%, has already ruled out teaming up with Kickl and urged voters to vote for him to prevent the far-right from coming to power.
“I have made it clear with whom it is not possible to form a responsible, viable government. The current leader of the FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria) does not fulfil these criteria. That’s why I excluded him,” he said in Vienna on Friday.
Still, Kickl has achieved a turnaround since Austria’s last election in 2019. In June, the Freedom Party narrowly won a nationwide vote for the first time in the European Parliament elections, which also brought gains for other European far-right parties.
In the 2019 election, its support slumped to 16.2% after a scandal brought down a government in which it was the junior coalition partner.
Then-vice chancellor and Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache resigned following the publication of a secretly recorded video in which he appeared to offer favours to a purported Russian investor.
The Freedom Party also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia, is highly critical of western military aid to Ukraine and wants to bow out of the European Sky Shield Initiative, a missile defence project launched by Germany.
The leader of the Social Democrats, a party that led many of Austria’s post-World War II governments, has positioned himself as the polar opposite to Kickl.Â
Andreas Babler, who is also mayor of the town of Traiskirchen, home to the country’s biggest refugee reception centre, has also ruled out governing with the far-right and labelled Kickl “a threat to democracy.”
“Politics has only one obligation: to focus on people’s realities and to put respect for people first. Politics has the sole task of improving the conditions under which most people in this country have to live,” he said at a campaign event on Saturday.
ADVERTISEMENTRounding out the top five are NEOS, the Greens and the BIER Party.
NEOS was formed a decade ago following a merger with the Liberal Forum and has campaigned on promises to recruit 20,000 new teachers, reduce tax burdens on citizens and increase political transparency.
Party leader Beate Meinl-Resinger said people of all ages were enthusiastic about what her party was offering.
“I want us to look ahead, look to the future and create optimism and confidence in Austria again, to say that things will get better and that there is a future that is better than today,” she said.
ADVERTISEMENTTied almost neck and neck in the polls with NEOS are the Greens (Die Grünen) led by Werner Kogler who also serves as Austria’s Vice Chancellor.
At his party’s campaign rally on Friday, he praised the achievements of the Green team as the junior party in the ruling coalition.
“When has there ever been such a strong government team from a parliamentary group in this republic? But now, of course, it’s about the future,” he told supporters in Vienna.
Around 6.5 million Austrian are eligible to cast a ballot and voting ends at 5pm local time when exit polls will give an indication of the results.
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