The Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) was expected to win the parliamentary elections. Almost a third of Austrians voted right.
Once all the votes were counted, the opposition Austrian Freedom Party, led by Herbert Kickl won 29.2% of the vote, the ruling Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), Chancellor Carla Nehammer – 26.5%. In third place is the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), with 21% of the votes.
The liberal party NEOS (New Austria and Liberal Forum) won 8.8%, while the Greens won 8.6%.
As a result of the elections, the Austrian right will obtain 58 seats out of 183 in parliament, the conservatives, 52, and the Social Democrats, 41.
Thus, the Austrian Freedom Party, compared to the results of the previous parliamentary elections in 2019, lost the support of 11% of voters, while the Austrian right improved its result by 13 percentage points.
Formally, the Austrian electorate according to the results of the 2024 elections was approximately divided into thirds between right, center-right and center-left, with a certain advantage for the former and a lag for the social democrats. It seems that the post-war dominance of the two parties in the Austrian democratic system: the “popular” and the “socialist” have been overcome.
In his comments, Chancellor Nehammer stressed that the successes of the Austrian right must be recognized and that in the future the center right, to which he belongs, will have to understand “why the radicals get more votes” than the ÖVP, which he claimed represents the political environment and reasonableness unlike the FPÖ.
Chancellor Nehammer tried to highlight the positive that his Popular Party has managed to defend itself “from where some had already seen us, that is, from political insignificance.” He promised that the Austrian center-right would not give up the fight.
General Secretary of the ÖVP Christian Stocker He stated that the Austrian People’s Party would not cooperate with the FPÖ, led by Kickl. Likewise, Chancellor Nehammer stated: “It is impossible to build a state with Kickle.”
However, the general secretary of the Austrian Freedom Party Michael Schnedlitz Very satisfied with the best result obtained in a federal election in the history of his party and with the fact that the FPÖ for the first time won first place in a parliamentary election. “The Austrians have made history,” Schnedlitz said in an interview with the Austrian channel ORF and thanked the voters and party leader Kickl, whom he called the engine of the renewal in recent years.
In a subsequent statement to ORF, Kickl thanked his voters for their “optimism, courage and confidence,” saying that voters “used the word strength” for his party, which to him meant they would not have to change their agenda.
According to Kickl, the parties that ruled out the possibility of creating a coalition under his leadership, namely the Greens and the SPÖ in particular, should reconsider their position. He stated that he was willing to negotiate a coalition with all parties. However, the Greens, led by the President of Austria Alexander Van der Bellen He completely ruled out the possibility of a partnership with the FPÖ due to its “anti-European” position and its refusal to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The position of the president is important because, according to the Austrian Constitution, the chancellor is not elected by parliament, but appointed by the president, who takes into account the opinion of the majority of parliament.
The Austrian Freedom Party is therefore far from having an absolute majority and it will be extremely difficult for the Austrian right to form a governing coalition. However, only a bloc of the People’s Party and the Social Democrats, who in the previous period were the main opponents in Austrian politics, can resist them.
It should be noted that the Austrian Freedom Party is not a newcomer to Austrian politics. Furthermore, since its founding in 1956, it has been part of three government coalitions as minor partners led by the center-right: from 1983 to 1986, from 2000 to 2006 and from 2017 to 2019.
It can be imagined that the leadership of the Popular Party will form a government bloc with the Freedom Party, but on the condition that its leader is not the chancellor. That is, in Austria they will repeat what they recently did in the Netherlands in relation to the victorious right-wing Freedom Party there and its leader. Geert Wilders. It should be noted here that the position of the Popular Party on issues related to migration is extremely close to that of the Freedom Party.
Overall, the political results of the current 2024 Austrian elections are apparently significant, especially for neighboring Germany. According to the Austrian model, even a possible future victory of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party will have no political consequences for it, due to the isolated position of this party in the country’s political spectrum and the position of the traditional centrist party. The Christian Democratic right of the CDU/CSU in relation to the right.
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The main issues of the election campaign in Austria were migration and refugees, as well as inflation and the war in Ukraine. Kickl promised the Austrians to build a “Fortress Austria,” impregnable to immigrants. The Freedom Party proposes “reimmigration,” which refers to “the repatriation of all illegal immigrants on the basis of existing legal norms.”
Additionally, Kickl promised to block negotiations with Ukraine to join the EU and close the European Union to kyiv due to the threat to European agriculture.
As for sanctions against Russia, Austria, according to Kickl, should be guided by national interests, which means that Vienna needs Russian gas.
