Austria goes back to the future as voters embrace far-right party founded by Nazis

GRAZ, Austria — Austria veered to the right in a watershed election on Sunday as the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) stormed to victory, marking the first time since World War II that a party rooted in Nazi ideology prevailed in a national ballot.

The anti-migrant, Russia-friendly FPÖ won a record 29 percent of the vote, nearly doubling its result from the last election, according to preliminary results, putting it about three points ahead of the center-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), which currently leads the government. The ÖVP suffered a record loss to finish with 26 percent.

“The results today couldn’t have been clearer,” Herbert Kickl, the FPÖ’s leader and chief ideologue, told Austrian public television, insisting that his party should lead the next government.

The Social Democratic Party finished third, recording the worst result in its history with 21 percent. The Greens, who govern alongside the ÖVP in the current government, suffered a steep decline in support to finish with just eight percent.  The liberal NEOS, meanwhile, were the other winners of the night, finishing with over nine percent.

Turnout was strong, with nearly 80 percent of eligible Austrians casting ballots.

Austria’s far-right swing is another worrying sign for Europe, signaling that a recent surge in populist forces shows no sign of abating. FPÖ leaders regard Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has systematically dismantled democratic freedoms in his country, as a model and have promised to follow his lead.  

If the FPÖ succeeds in building a coaliton, the European Union would be faced with a Euroskeptic populist bloc encompassing Austria, Hungary and Slovakia and possibly the Czech Republic after an election there next year.

The FPÖ, founded in the 1950s by former members of the SS and other Nazi veterans, ran on an anti-foreigner campaign this election, vowing to erect a “Fortress Austria” to keep out migrants.

Kickl promised voters that if they handed him the win, he would serve as their Volkskanzler, or “people’s chancellor,” a moniker once used by Adolf Hitler.

Though the party downplays its Nazi past and seeks to portray itself as an anti-establishment alternative to the mainstream center right and left, it regularly uses antisemitic fascist code to stir its base. A reminder of just how deep the party’s affinity for a Third Reich aesthetic runs was apparent Friday at a longserving FPÖ politician’s funeral, where mourners sent off their comrade by singing an SS anthem. A number of FPÖ leaders, past and present, were in the audience.

Such excesses — not to mention the party’s anti-European bent and support for “remigrating” foreign-born citizens it deems unsuitable — will make it difficult for the FPÖ to build a coalition, but not impossible.

Austria’s constitution grants the last word on nominations for ministers and the chancellor to the president. Alexander Van der Bellen, a former leader of the Greens who has been president since 2017, has made little secret of his distaste for Kickl and is unlikely to nominate him as chancellor.

Nonethless, it would be difficult for the president to ignore the FPÖ’s strong showing. That means the party has a fair chance of building an alliance with the center right, which has ruled out working with Kickl, if the FPÖ fields a different candidate for the top job.

Another option for the ÖVP might be to build an alliance with the Social Democrats in two-way coalition, though it wasn’t clear from the preliminary results whether the parties would have enough seats to do so.

Some observers believe a three-way coalition between the ÖVP, Social Democrats and the liberal NEOS – thus excluding the FPÖ – is more likely, though such a combination could prove unstable, given that it would span the ideological divide.

A three-way coalition could also backfire by strengthening the FPÖ’s anti-establishment image. Another five years in the opposition could end up handing the party an ever bigger win down the road. 

“I would caution against ignoring the will of millions of people,” Kickl warned in a post-election discussion with other party leaders on Austrian television.

The FPÖ’s win echoes numerous strong showings for far-right parties across Europe over the past two years as establishment parties have struggled to manage a massive influx in asylum-seekers and other migrants.

Earlier this month, Germany’s anti-migrant Alternative for Germany party recorded strong gains in regional elections. That follows last year’s victory by Geert Wilders, the Dutch right-wing firebrand, in a national election in the Netherlands and Italian neo-fascist Giorgia Meloni’s rise to power in Italy.  

Though the FPÖ’s result was broadly telegraphed in the polls, it was nonetheless stunning for a party that appeared to be on the verge of collapse just five years ago when it was enveloped by a sweeping scandal that brought the government down.

Even as the so-called Ibiza affair — triggered by a secret video in which the FPÖ’s then-leader discussed trading political favors for cash — continues to occupy Austrian courts, the FPÖ managed to quickly rebuild itself under Kickl.

The biggest loser of the night was the ÖVP, which lost near one-third of its voters.

“We fought to come from behind, but it wasn’t enough,” Chancellor Karl Nehammer acknowledged in remarks to supporters.

The ÖVP has been dogged by a string of corruption scandals triggered by the Ibiza investigations that forced the resignation of the party’s youthful chancellor Sebastian Kurz in 2021.

Despite those missteps, the party, which has created a formidable political machine in Austria, is almost certain to belong to the next government, as has been the case since 1987.

The only real question is whether it decides to take the risk of pursuing another coalition the FPÖ. It’s last two outings with the party — in 2000 and 2017 — didn’t end well, even though the ÖVP was in the senior role. This time around, it would have to grant the Kickl’s FPÖ the driver’s seat, leaving it even more exposed to the far right’s unruly politics.

Despite the ÖVP leadership’s insistence it wouldn’t accept a deal with Kickl, the FPÖ leader wasn’t throwing in the towel.

“I think we’re going to see some movement,” he told reporters on Sunday evening. 

This story is being updated.