The News
Austria’s far-right Freedom Party appears to have won its first national election with 29.1% of the vote, the country’s state broadcaster reported Sunday. The apparent victory marks another major electoral victory for Europe’s far-right movement.
The Freedom Party’s win would still require it to form a coalition government with other parties, a scenario that is more likely to come to pass given that the country’s center-right party, which was in second place, exit polls showed, has said it would be willing to work with the far right.
Know More
Unlike many other European far-right parties, which have risen relatively recently amid growing anti-immigrant sentiment and Euroskepticism, the Freedom Party is considered the “grandfather” of Europe’s far-right movement, CNN noted, with its roots in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Nazi regime following the Second World War.
Since its creation, the party has maintained a steady base and been part of past coalition governments, most recently under former Chancellor Sebastien Kurtz, which collapsed amid a corruption scandal in 2019.
Party leader Herbert Kickl is riding a wave of public anger over what voters perceive as the country’s mismanagement and soaring cost of living. Kickl, “arguably the best communicator of any party,” according to one political scientist, has pledged to turn Austria into a “fortress,” limit asylum seekers, and enact “remigration” — or returning people to the countries their families originally came from.