By AFP
September 29, 2024
Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) celebrates its win in downtown Vienna - Copyright APA/AFP ROLAND SCHLAGER
Blaise GAUQUELIN
As jubilant Austrian far-right supporters celebrated their party’s historic win in Sunday’s national elections with beers, they knew forming a government would not be easy.
“It’s a real success… (but) I predict that no matter who forms the government, we will certainly not have one before Christmas,” Erik Berglund, a 35-year-old waiter, told AFP.
Led by sharp-tongued Herbert Kickl since 2021, the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) had been tipped to narrowly beat the ruling conservatives but Sunday’s results — with the party getting around 29 percent — were even slightly better than expected.
Like other party supporters around him in traditional Austrian dress, Berglund credited Kickl the “most competent leader”.
But he said it would now be up to the other parties to decide if the FPOe head can become chancellor.
“It will certainly be a very, very exciting time,” he added as electric blue light — the FPOe colour — illuminated the restaurant in downtown Vienna where the party was celebrating.
– ‘Mountain climber’ –
Chancellor Karl Nehammer, whose conservatives came second in the elections, has already said he would not form a coalition government with Kickl. Other party leaders have also rejected him.
“I am a mountain climber, but the bag that I have been given is not light,” the sporty Kickl told his cheering supporters.
As supporters watched the vote night unfold on private television rather than public broadcaster ORF, which the FPOe has accused of being biased, they booed whenever other parties’ representatives appeared onscreen.
Hilmar Kabas, an FPOe member since the 1960s, said other parties’ “weakness” was the main reason that propelled the far right to victory.
But supporters wearing “Team Kickl” parkas also rattle off other reasons, such as asylum seeker applications deemed too many, a slumping economy and the high cost of living that has seen far-right parties across Europe gain ground.
But if no one is willing to form a coalition under Kickl, it’s better to stay in the opposition, Kabas said.
“It is not the other parties that decide for us,” he added.
– ‘Beacon in our night’ –
A loden-clothed activist from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was also among the crowd, having come specially from Bavaria state in neighbouring Germany to celebrate with his “friends”.
“Germany is looking toward Vienna tonight,” he said, declining to give his name.
With him, he brought a gift for Kickl: a small blue lighthouse engraved with his name because “he is a beacon in our night”.
Outgoing lawmaker Petra Steger said President Alexander Van der Bellen must now give the mandate to Kickl to form a government “respecting the voters”.
“That’s how it works in a democracy,” she said.
Having expressed reservations about Kickl a few months ago, Van der Bellen promised after the results were announced he would make sure a government is formed that respects the “foundations of our liberal democracy”.
Not far from the FPOe celebration, in front of parliament, a few hundred people gathered to say “no to Kickl”, leader of a party formed by former Nazis.
“Nazis out”, they chanted.
“Unfortunately, it was to be expected that the FPOe would be in the lead, but it is quite sad (to have this result), because somehow we have learned nothing from history,” Juliana Hofmann, a 19-year-old student, told AFP.
Chris Gattringer
30 September 2024
The Freedom Party (FPÖ) scored a momentous and better-than-expected win in Austria’s September 29 elections. At 9 pm – with 97 per cent of votes counted – the right-wing FPÖ party under its leader Herbert Kickl led other parties with 29 per cent of the vote, a 13 percentage-point improvement over its performance in the previous 2019 elections.
It was a better result for the FPÖ than the last pre-elections polls predicted, which suggested a tie for first place between Kickl’s party and the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP). In the event, the FPÖ pulled ahead of the ÖVP by 2.5 percentage points.
The Conservatives emerged as the election’s clear loser, in the worst result for the ÖVP since 2013.
Karl Nehammer’s party lost 11 percentage points compared with 2019. Its 26 per cent share of the vote was the party’s lowest in 11 years.
The days now seemed a distant memory when the ÖVP trounced other parties with 37 per cent of the vote in 2019, under the party’s young leader Sebastian Kurz.
Kurz was subsequently forced to resign as Austrian chancellor in 2021 due to a perjury lawsuit, replaced by the much less charismatic party soldier Nehammer.
The Greens, the ÖVP’s coalition partner for the last five years, were the day’s other big loser.
Werner Kogler’s party dropped from 14 per cent of the vote in 2019 to only eight per cent, despite heavy support from much of the Austrian press.
The Social Democrats, with an expected 21 per cent of the vote, scored their worst result in a general election since the Second World War.
This was even worse than their previous worst postwar showing in 2019. Their relatively new chairman Andreas Babler, a self-declared “Marxist”, ran on a programme matching his self-description.
The left-leaning liberal Neos party did not capitalise on dissatisfaction with the government either, gaining only a single percentage point to win nine per cent of the vote.
A spate of predominantly left-wing fringe parties failed to surpass the four per cent minimum showing to secure parliamentary representation.
Barring last-minute surprises, there were two main options for a two-party coalition to secure a majority in the Austrian parliament’s lower house, the National Council.
FPÖ and ÖVP together would have a comfortable 108-seat majority in the 183-seats chamber.
Together with Neos they would even have enjoy two-thirds supermajority, allowing them to amend Austria’s constitution.
This would permit the new government to push through much-needed reforms such as a federal debt limit, or abolishing constitutionally forced membership in the Chamber of Commerce (for employers) and the Chamber of Workers (for employees).
However, dreams of a three-member reform coalition appear premature.
The sole remaining option for a two-party coalition is a government consisting of the ÖVP and the Social Democrats (SPÖ), though this would only have a thin majority of one seat.
Still, some ÖVP representatives have shown a clear preference for this coalition—which before the election was dubbed a “coalition of the losers”.
Before the vote the ÖVP ruled out a coalition with the FPÖ if the government included Herbert Kickl, accusing him of “radicalisation” and “right-wing extremism”.
However, after scoring a landslide win for his party it is unlikely Kickl would be replaced against his will.
It remained to be seen if the Conservatives’ election loss leads to a change of mind. The ÖVP’s leader, Nehammer, called the result “bitter” in his initial reaction, and did not want to speculate about possible coalitions.
All parties other than the ÖVP have ruled out entering into a coalition with the FPÖ.
On Sunday evening, Herbert Kickl told other party leaders: “Our hand is outstretched. I am ready for talks with each and every one of you”.
Austria now faced a difficult and potentially long phase of party talks before a future coalition government emerged.
Some commentators expected the ÖVP to drag coalition talks well into November until after regional elections in two states.
Also, a coalition between the ÖVP and SPÖ might drive even more dissatisfied conservative voters towards Kickl’s Freedom Party.
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