Austria’s far-right, Eurosceptic and Russia-friendly Freedom Party (FPÖ) won its first parliamentary election victory on Sunday, the 29th of September, with 29% of the vote, marking another milestone in the recent rise of Europe’s far-right parties, but faced the challenge of finding a coalition partner to form a government, with the leaders of the other parties rejecting the idea of forming a coalition in a televised debate with FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl after the results were announced, reports Reuters.
According to preliminary results, Kickl’s party won 29.2% of the vote – almost three percent ahead of conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s People’s Party (ÖVP) with 26.5% of the vote – but did not win a majority.
“Tomorrow will be Blue Monday and then we will get down to the business of turning that 29% into a political reality in this country” Kickl told supporters on Sunday night, playing on the fact that blue is the colour associated with his party.
Kickl, a provocative and polarising figure who is an ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, offered to negotiate with all the other Austrian parties.
The FPO’s unexpectedly clear victory may prove futile if it is unable to find a coalition partner.
President Alexander Van der Bellen, the former leader of the Greens who oversees government formation, called on all parties to negotiate and suggested that the process could be protracted.
The victory of Austria’s far-right FPÖ was celebrated by far-right parties in European countries where far-right parties have been successful, including the Netherlands, France and Germany, but such victories have not guaranteed power. In France and the Netherlands, far-right electoral victories were blocked by coalitions of more moderate parties.
This growing support could contribute to the risk of divisions within the European Union over important policy areas such as the defence of Ukraine against Russia.
Kickl says he wants to become “People’s Chancellor” (from the German “Volkskanzler”), a term used by the Nazis for Adolf Hitler.
Kickl, 55, is a conspiracy theorist, claiming that the anti-fungal agent ivermectin is effective against Covid-19, just as former US President Donald Trump claimed. He opposes aid to Ukraine and wants sanctions against Russia to be lifted, saying they are more damaging to Austria than to Moscow.
Supporters say the FPÖ’s “Austria First” policy will curb illegal immigration and boost economic growth, but critics worry it could become a messenger of a more authoritarian state.
The ÖVP is the only party that has said it is ready to form a coalition with the FPÖ, but Nehammer has ruled out the possibility of forming a government with Kickl. He repeated this on Sunday, but there is no sign that Kickl will step down.
If Kickl fails to form a coalition, it could open the possibility of some kind of alliance with the ÖVP and the centre-left Social Democrats, two parties that have dominated Austria’s post-war political history.
The other parties consistently characterise Kickl as a threat and their refusal to work with Kickl risks further cementing him as an outsider, said political analyst Thomas Hofer, adding that “it is clear that Herbert Kickl sees this only as confirmation of his anti-system narrative”.