Austria’s Freedom Party has secured the first far-right national parliamentary election victory since the Second World War, beating conservatives in power. Political analysts say the far-right achieved this electoral victory by tapping into voters’ concerns over immigration, inflation, and the war in Ukraine. It must be said, however, that the Freedom Party’s chances of governing are unclear at this stage.
Preliminary election results show that the Freedom Party finished first in the election with 29.2 percent of the vote, while the ruling Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative Austrian People’s Party came in second with 26.5 percent of the vote.
The center-left in Austria saw disappointing results. The Social Democrats are only the third most powerful party in the country with 21 percent of the vote. Crucially, however, Chancellor Karl Nehammer and his coalition with the environmentalist greens lost their majority in parliament. Herbert Kickl, who was a former interior minister and leader of the Freedom Party since 2021, now wants to become chancellor.
For the far-right in Austria to be in power, they would need a coalition
Despite Austria’s far-right Freedom Party gaining the majority of the votes in the election, the path toward power is much more tricky. For instance, for Kickl to become chancellor, the party would need to form a coalition. This will prove to be a challenging task, as political rivals have stated they will not work with Kickl in government.
In its election program, titled “Fortress Austria,” the Freedom Party stated they wanted, “remigration of uninvited foreigners to achieve a more homogeneous nation by tightly controlling borders and suspending the right to asylum via an emergency law.”
Additionally, the far-right Freedom Party in Austria has called for sanctions against Russia to be ended and has consistently criticized Western military aid to Ukraine.
The party’s ambition does not end there, as Kickl’s party wants to opt out of the European Sky Shield Initiative, which is a missile defense program launched by Germany. The party has also consistently criticized the European Union, calling for certain powers to be handed back to Austria.
What does the Freedom Party’s local victory mean for European far-right parties in general?
This is not the first time that Austria’s Freedom Party has gained a significant electoral victory, but many political analysts fear this might set a trend for other European nations. For instance, the far-right party won by a fine margin in the European Parliament election in June.
However, the gains of this most recent victory were almost immediately felt and celebrated throughout Europe by far-right supporters. Geert Wilders, a far-right leader in the Netherlands whose party became the largest in the Dutch House of Representatives in 2023, took to X to congratulate Kickl and the Austrian far-right on their victory.
Support for the far-right party has increased exponentially over the last five years in Austria. In 2019, it only had 16.2 percent of voter support after a scandal dissolved the government in which they were a minor player.
Now, Austria’s Freedom Party has attained its best electoral result yet, even surpassing the 26.9 percent it had gained in 1999, thereby bringing the far-right back to the mainstream in the Central European nation.
