Close race: Election in Austria: Right-wing FPÖ with a chance of victory

The right-wing FPÖ wants to replace the conservative chancellor’s party ÖVP as the party with the largest number of votes in the Austrian parliamentary elections. The FPÖ has been in first place in surveys for a long time. The right-wing populist party leader Herbert Kickl is relying on a more restrictive migration policy under the slogan “Fortress Austria” as well as criticism of sanctions against Russia.

But according to surveys, Chancellor Karl Nehammer and his party have recently caught up and with 25 percent are now only just behind the FPÖ with 27 percent. The floods of the past few days gave Nehammer the opportunity to present himself as the country’s top crisis manager.

FPÖ won European elections

According to pollsters, the social democratic SPÖ can only expect around 21 percent of the vote. The Greens, who have governed with the ÖVP for the past five years, were recently forecast at around nine percent, roughly on a par with the liberal Neos. Almost 6.4 million citizens are called to vote.

In June, the FPÖ won the European elections in Austria. Now the right-wing populists could become the strongest force in the Austrian National Council, the largest chamber of parliament, for the first time. But what happens next is largely unclear.

The FPÖ and ÖVP have not ruled out collaboration, but Nehammer sets the condition that Kickl would not be involved in such a coalition in any way. Nehammer sees Kickl as a “security risk” and conspiracy theorist, not least because of his skepticism about corona vaccinations. As an alternative, there is cooperation between the ÖVP and SPÖ, possibly in a constellation with the Neos.

Excitement about song with SS past

Apart from the ÖVP, all other parties completely rule out cooperation with the FPÖ, among other things because of the lack of distinction between right-wing populists and right-wing extremists. On the day before the election, the newspaper “Der Standard” published footage of a funeral where FPÖ politicians can be seen as mourners and a song can be heard that had been glorified by the SS as a “loyalty song”. The video caused excitement and criticism from all parties.

The FPÖ’s expected gains would be in line with the trend. Right-wing parties have gained popularity across Europe, such as Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands, the Italian Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) with Giorgia Meloni at the head and the Rassemblement National (RN). Marine Le Pen in France. In Germany, the AfD recently achieved success in the state elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg.