Austria’s far-right Freedom Party is heading for an unprecedented general election victory after projections said they would pick up the largest vote share.
The forecast, based on initial results, said Herbert Kickl’s party would win 29.1 per cent of the vote – three points ahead of the conservative People’s Party on 26 per cent, according to election researchers Arge Wahlen for PULS 24 TV. The centre-left Social Democrats, meanwhile, were in third place with 20.4 per cent.
The Freedom Party (FPÖ) would still need to form a coalition with whom it could command a majority in the lower house of parliament if it wishes to govern.
The People’s Party previously ruled out taking part in a government ruled by Mr Kickl after the FPÖ called for the “remigration of uninvited foreigners” and the suspension of the right to asylum.
Incumbent Chancellor Karl Nehammer of the People Party, said during the election it’s “impossible to form a government with someone who adores conspiracy theories”.
The issue of migration and asylum heavily dominated the election, as well as inflation and the war in Ukraine. The FPÖ’s strong performance follows recent gains for the far-right elsewhere in Europe.
He received strong rebuke after he used the term “Volkskanzler” – meaning chancellor of the people – ahead of the vote. The same word was used by the Nazis to describe Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. Mr Kickl rejected the comparison.
The FPÖ has also called for an end to sanctions against Russia and criticised Western military aid to Ukraine.
Speaking at his closing campaign speech on Saturday, Mr Kickl said sanctions against Moscow over the war were hurting Austria even more than Russia.
The FPÖ said it also wants to overhaul the welfare system and entwine the right to benefits with citizenship. The number of police officers will also increase if it goes into government, the party said, as well as a ban on “political Islam” and a two-gender constitutional determination.
It also wants to impose referendums so the electorate can vote out cabinet ministers.
Mr Kickl previously served as interior minister in disgraced former chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s government but was dismissed following the country’s ‘Ibiza scandal’.
The 2019 scandal saw then-deputy chancellor and FPÖ leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, talking to an unidentified woman, claiming to be the niece of a Russian oligarch at a luxury resort in Ibiza. The woman told him she was interested in gaining control of Austria’s largest tabloid and Strache said he could offer lucrative public contracts in exchange for campaign support.
Mr Kickl was subsequently dismissed from his role as interior minister to allow an investigation into the scandal and his party colleague. He was not personally implicated.
