Far-right party wins Austrian parliamentary election – but could struggle to form government

The right-wing extremist Freedom Party has won the parliamentary election in Austria.

Led by Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister fired because of the Ibiza scandal in the countryThe party took first place ahead of the ruling Conservatives, while the center-left Social Democrats came third.

Nevertheless, the party’s chances of actually being able to govern remain unclear.

Preliminary official results showed the Freedom Party came in second with 29.2% of the vote, Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s Austrian People’s Party with 26.5% and the Social Democrats with 21%, according to a near-complete count released to the nationwide public -legal broadcaster ORF reported.

The outgoing government, a coalition between Nehammer’s party and the Greens, lost its majority in the lower house of parliament.

Mr Kickl said he wanted to become chancellor but to become Austria’s new leader he would need a coalition partner and rivals said they would not work with him in government.

He was also criticized for using the term “Volkskanzler” or “People’s Chancellor” in the 1930s, which the Nazis used to describe Adolf Hitler.

Mr Kickl rejected the settlement.

The party has capitalized on fears around immigration, inflation, COVID and the war in Ukraine, and its strong performance follows from that recent gains for the far right elsewhere in Europe.

In its election program “Fortress Austria,” the Freedom Party called for the “return of uninvited foreigners” in order to achieve a more “homogeneous” nation.

The party also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia, is sharply critical of Western military aid to Ukraine and wants to withdraw from the European Sky Shield Initiative, a missile defense project launched by Germany.

In his final election campaign speech on Saturday, Kickl claimed that the sanctions against Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine would hurt Austria even more than Russia.

Together with other party leaders on the ORF, he said: “We don’t have to change our position, because we have always said that we are ready to lead a government, we are ready to drive this change on the Austrian side.” on the side of the people .

Mr. Nehammer described Mr. Kickl as a “security risk” to the country.

He, along with other political leaders, has declared that he will not enter into a coalition with Mr. Kickl.

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If the Freedom Party is unable to form a government, an alternative could be an alliance between the People’s Party and the Social Democrats – with or without the liberal Neos, which received 9% of the vote.

Who is Herbert Kickl?

After the Ibiza affair in 2019, 55-year-old Herbert Kickl will become head of the FPÖ in 2021.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Kickl took part in anti-lockdown protests and described Israel’s mass vaccination campaign as “health apartheid.”

He also refused to condemn those who compared lockdown measures to the Holocaust, despite Austria’s strict laws against anti-Semitism.

He rejected claims that those making the comparison were trivializing the Nazi regime in an interview with the Austrian news channel ORF.

And in March last year, he and other FPO members walked out of the Austrian parliament as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the chamber.

The far-right victory in Austria follows similar successes elsewhere in Europe.

Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, whose party dominates the Netherlands’ new government, congratulated the Freedom Party on social media.

As does the co-chair of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel, whose party recently won the state elections for the first time.

Far-right party wins Austrian parliamentary election – but could struggle to form government | World News

Who is Herbert Kickl?

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