Austrian far-right party wins first national election since World War II

London: Austria’s far-right party has won a historic first national election after tapping into voters’ fears of immigration and the Ukraine war, exit polls predict.

The result will consolidate pro-Russian, anti-establishment forces in central Europe. Preliminary official results put support for the Freedom Party at 29.2 per cent and for Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s Austrian People’s Party at 26.5 per cent. The centre-left Social Democrats were in third place with 21 per cent.

Herbert Kickl, leader of the Freedom Party of Austria waves to supporters, in Vienna. He said he’ll start coalition negotiations straight away.Credit: AP

Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister and long-time campaign strategist who has led the Freedom Party since 2021, has promised voters he will build “Fortress Austria” to restore their security, prosperity and peace. It’s Austria’s first far-right national election win post-World War II.

One of Europe’s longest-standing parties of the populist right, The Freedom Party has embraced increasingly hardline and extremist policies on immigration and has never come first in a national election before. It was founded in the 1950s by former members of the SS and other Nazi veterans.

Kickl campaigned on an end to sanctions against Russia, was critical of Western military aid to Ukraine and wants to opt out of the European Sky Shield Initiative, a missile defence project launched by Germany.

Protesters on the streets of Vienna following elections in which initial results show the far-right Freedom Party of Austria in first place.Credit: Getty Images

He has used the term “Volkskanzler”, or chancellor of the people, which was used by the Nazis to describe Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. Kickl has rejected the comparison.

In its election platform, the party called for “remigration of uninvited foreigners” and for achieving a more “homogeneous” nation by tightly controlling borders and suspending the right to asylum via an “emergency law”.

But to become the country’s new leader, Kickl will now need a coalition partner to command a majority in the lower house of parliament. He said he’d start negotiations straight away. His party was on course to secure about 57 seats in the 183-seat parliament, with the conservatives on 51 and the Social Democrats on 40.

Nehammer, Kickl’s main rival, has said it was “impossible to form a government with someone who adores conspiracy theories”.

More than 6.3 million people from the age of 16 were eligible to vote. The European Union member has a policy of military neutrality.

Anti right-wing protesters shout slogans holding a banner that reads “Don’t let Nazis rule and never let them march” near the parliament building in Vienna, Austria.Credit: AP

Kickl’s projected victory is only the latest success for radical right-wing parties in Europe after Germany’s AfD topped the polls in the eastern state of Thuringia this month.

“The voter has spoken. Change is wanted in our country,” Freedom Party general secretary Michael Schnedlitz said, though he acknowledged that “we don’t have the final result yet”.

People’s Party general secretary Christian Stocker conceded that “we didn’t achieve first place” but said his party had come back from lower poll ratings. And he reiterated Nehammer’s refusal to form a coalition with Kickl, saying, “That was the case yesterday, and it is the case today and it will still be the case tomorrow.”

With agencies

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