The far-right Freedom Party is close to winning its first ever national election in Austria, with polls showing a narrow lead.
Led by Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister who was dismissed over the country’s Ibiza scandal, the Freedom Party (FPO) is leading polls at 27%.
However, it is just two points ahead of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (OVP) at 25%, and no party is set for an outright majority.
The party enjoyed its first nationwide election win in June when it took six seats in the European Parliament election, which saw far-right parties across Europe make gains.
It marks a major turnaround for the FPO – in 2019 the far-right party slumped while part of a coalition government after a video emerged of then leader Heinz-Christian Strache appearing to offer favours to a purported Russian investor.
After its vote share collapsed to 16.2% five years ago, the FPO under Mr Kickl has campaigned on immigration, inflation, and the war in Ukraine.
Polls close in Austria at 5pm (3pm in the UK), with projected results set to follow shortly after.
What does FPO support?
In its election programme, the FPO calls for the “remigration of uninvited foreigners”, for achieving a more “homogeneous” nation by tightly controlling borders, and suspending the right to asylum via an “emergency law” to create “fortress Austria”.
The FPO 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.
In his closing campaign speech on Saturday, Mr Kickl claimed sanctions against Moscow over the war on Ukraine were hurting Austria even more than Russia.
“If you look at Germany, (Volkswagon, which cut its annual outlook) for example, the threat of mass unemployment and everything that then spills over into Austria,” he said.
In its manifesto, the FPO says it would bring in no new taxes, and would offer tax breaks for young workers at the start of their careers.
It also calls for a welfare system where benefits are linked to citizenship, an increase in police numbers, a ban on “political Islam”, a two-gender constitutional determination, and more referendums so voters can vote out cabinet ministers.
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Herbert Kickl has been called a ‘security threat’ by the Austrian chancellor. Pic: Reuters
Who is Herbert Kickl?
After the Ibiza affair in 2019, 55-year-old Mr Kickl became leader of the FPO in 2021.
Controversy arose when he was called volkkanzler – meaning chancellor of the people – by his party and supporters. The term was also used by Nazi supporters to describe Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. Mr Kickl has rejected the comparison.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Kickl attended anti-lockdown protests and called Israel’s mass vaccination campaign “health apartheid”.
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He also refused to condemn those who likened lockdown measures to the Holocaust, despite Austria’s strict laws against antisemitism. He rubbished claims that those making the comparison were trivialising the Nazi regime during an interview with Austrian news outlet ORF.
And in March last year, he and other FPO members left the Austrian parliament when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the chamber.
Karl Nehammer has ruled out a coalition with the FPO if Herbert Kickl is involved.
Pic: Reuters
Will Kickl be chancellor?
While the FPO leads in the polls, it is not set to win an outright majority and would likely be forced to go into government with the OVP.
Austria’s current chancellor – the OVP’s Karl Nehammer – has already said he will not join a coalition government with the FPO if Mr Kickl is involved.
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Extreme flooding across Europe
He has also called the far-right leader a “security risk”, and said on Thursday the election “is about whether we continue together on this proven path of stability or leave the country to the radicals, who make a lot of promises and don’t keep them”.
While the OVP has been hit by scandals since taking office – with two chancellors ousted since 2019 – the response to the flooding caused by Storm Boris has helped the party narrow the FPO’s polling lead.