Austria taking an extreme step? This is the party that will garner about 30% of the votes

Today (Sunday) general elections were held in Austria, and according to the results of the polls that have just been received, the extreme right-wing Freedom Party of Austria galloped all the way to victory. This is the first time since World War II that a party with fascist tendencies has won a national election in the Alpine country.

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The Freedom Party, founded by a group of Nazi veterans in the 1950s, leads with 29.1 percent of the vote, overtaking the center-right Austrian People’s Party, which currently heads the coalition.

The People’s Party won 26.2 percent. The center-left Social Democrats finished third with 20.4 percent, followed by the liberal party Naus with 8.8 percent and the Greens with 8.6 percent.

The far-right party won second place in the 1999 general election and the FPÖ’s entry into the Austrian government at the beginning of the millennium was met with widespread protests in the country and even sanctions from the European Union were imposed on it.

The FPÖ, one of the oldest far-right parties in Europe, was founded in 1956. Although initially headed by a former Nazi official and SS officer, it was a relatively moderate liberal party until the mid-1980s, when it turned radically to the right under its leader, Jorg Haider.

The party was twice a junior partner in short-lived coalition governments with the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), having finished second in the 1999 parliamentary election with 27% of the vote and third in 2017 with 26% of the vote.

Both coalitions ended early. Bitter infighting in the FPÖ led to the first collapse in 2002, and the “Ibizagate” scandal in 2019 forced the resignation of the then party leader, Heinz-Christian Stracheand torpedoed the second one after 18 months in office.

Today and under the leadership of the controversial former interior minister, Herbert Kickelthe FPÖ is nationalist, anti-immigration, anti-Islam and staunch Eurosceptic. one of its members of the European Parliament, Harald Wilimskidescribed her electoral mission as “a kick in the butt of the establishment”.

The FPÖ’s plan, “Fortress Austria, Fortress of Freedom,” plans to reduce allocations to illegal immigrants and asylum seekers to the bare minimum, block family reunification for immigrants already in Austria, and promote “re-immigration,” especially for immigrants who have been convicted of crimes.

It also wants to cut corporate tax and wage costs, and in foreign policy it opposes EU sanctions against Russia and more aid to Ukraine. The FPÖ signed and renewed a “cooperation agreement” with the United Russia party of Vladimir Putin.