Vienna, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 23rd Sep, 2024) Austrians will vote on Sunday with the far right polling narrowly ahead of the conservatives, bringing them within reach of a historic victory.
With far-right parties also gaining ground in other EU countries, it would be the first time ever Austria’s Freedom Party (FPOe) comes first in a national election.
But it is uncertain whether they would find partners allowing them to lead the Alpine nation of more than nine million people, even if they have been part of previous governments.
Headed by controversial, sharp-tongued politician Herbert Kickl since 2021, the FPOe has managed to build on voter anger and anxieties over inflation, the war in Ukraine and the Covid pandemic, with the far right blaming migration for the country’s current economic woes.
“What’s particularly important is that Austrians are once again being taken care of. (Now) everyone is being looked after except Austrian citizens,” Anna Kollenc, a 36-year-old fitness instructor, told AFP at an FPOe campaign event this month.
With slogans such as “Five good years” and “Courageously try something new”, the FPOe currently polls at 27 percent, just ahead of the ruling conservative People’s Party (OeVP) on around 25 percent.
While the FPOe has gained since the last national elections in 2019, overcoming a series of corruption scandals, the OeVP, which has been part of government since 1987 and is currently governing in coalition with the Greens, has slumped.
Kickl, 55, has been able to “collect a lot of frustrated voters who want to have a big change in Austrian politics,” political analyst Thomas Hofer said, adding the FPOe “did a good job” with its “an anti-establishment positioning”.
The party’s “black-and-white communication effort played very well in a very emotional time,” Hofer said, adding it would be an “earthquake” were the FPOe to win.
However, even if the FPOe wins the most seats, it will almost certainly need to find partners to govern.
Chancellor Karl Nehammer, 51, a former soldier who is campaigning on the promise of “stability for Austria”, has repeatedly excluded joining a government led by the radical Kickl.
President Alexander Van der Bellen has also expressed his reluctance to see Kickl lead the country.
Thwarting a Kickl chancellorship could be a three-party coalition — another first for Austria — headed by the OeVP, together with the Social Democrats who are polling at just above 20 percent and a third party, probably the liberal NEOS.
But as the economy is struggling, Hofer predicts an “uphill battle” for such a coalition which might even strengthen Kickl, who could further “foster his anti-establishment message” by arguing that he won but was denied the chancellorship.
