Austria’s far-right Freedom Party expected to win election | News

A victory for Herbert Kickl’s party would make Austria the latest EU country to see growing far-right support.

Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ) is expected to finish first in parliamentary elections ahead of the ruling conservatives, underscoring growing support for far-right parties in Europe sparked by concerns over immigration numbers.

A survey by the opinion research institute Foresight for ORF showed on Sunday that Herbert Kickl’s FPÖ received 29.1 percent of the vote, followed by Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) with 26.2 percent.

The center-left Social Democrats (SDP) were expected to take third place with 20.4 percent.

A separate forecast by polling firm Arge Elections put the FPO also in first place, winning by about four percentage points, a larger margin than recent polls had shown.

The forecasts were greeted with cheers from cheering party workers and supporters at an FPO event in the capital Vienna.

Kickl, a former interior minister who has led the FPÖ since 2021, is aiming to become Austria’s new chancellor after the first right-wing extremist election victory in the country since World War II.

However, the 55-year-old would need a coalition partner to secure a majority in the lower house of parliament – and rivals said they would not work with him.

The FPÖ is ready to hold talks with all parties about forming a government, Kickl told ORF after the projections were published.

Speaking to other party leaders, Kickl said other parties should reconsider their refusal to form a coalition with him.

The ÖVP, which like the FPÖ supports stricter immigration rules and tax cuts, is the only party that is open to a coalition with the far-right party – but without Kickl.

In his first comments after the election, Nehammer said he stood by his refusal to form a government that included the FPÖ leader.

Concerns about the economy and immigration into the country dominated the election campaign shortly before the elections and led to the OVP largely losing votes.

Nazi roots

Al Jazeera’s Aida Duratovic reported from Vienna and said both the ÖVP and SDP had previously been in power together with the FPÖ, but they did not want to repeat that this time.

She said many people in Austria believed the FPO was controversial because of its Nazi origins.

“Its founder was an SS officer and a Nazi minister,” she said, adding that some in Austria do not believe the party has completely broken away from its Nazi roots.

“Herbert Kickl describes himself as ‘People’s Chancellor,’ a term Adolf Hitler used to describe himself,” Duratovic added.

An FPO victory would make Austria the latest European Union country to see growing far-right support, following gains in countries such as the Netherlands, France and Germany.

The Eurosceptic party – which is critical of Islam, has close ties with Russia and promises stricter rules for asylum seekers – won a nationwide vote for the first time in June when it defeated the ÖVP in the European elections by less than a percentage point.

President Alexander Van der Bellen, who is responsible for forming a government, has expressed reservations about the FPÖ because it criticizes the EU and does not condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The party rejects EU sanctions against Moscow and points to Austria’s neutrality.

The president has hinted that he might thwart Kickl’s plans by saying the constitution does not require him to ask the first-place party to form a government, even though this has long been the practice.