Austria’s Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl leaves the presidential office, in Vienna, Austria, on January 06, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

The leader of Austria’s Freedom Party received a mandate Monday (January 6, 2025) to form a new government, which would be the first headed by the far right since World War II if he succeeds.

The Freedom Party, led by Herbert Kickl, won Austria’s parliamentary election in September, taking 28.8% of the vote and beating outgoing Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative Austrian People’s Party into second place.

Also read: What is the delay in forming a government in Austria? | Explained

But in October, President Alexander Van der Bellen gave Nehammer the first chance to form a new government after Nehammer’s party said it wouldn’t go into government with the Freedom Party under Kickl and others refused to work with the Freedom Party at all. Those efforts to form a governing alliance without the far right collapsed in the first few days of the new year and Nehammer said Saturday that he would resign.

The People’s Party then signaled that it might be open to working under Kickl. Van der Bellen said after meeting Kickl for about an hour at the presidential palace Monday that he had tasked the Freedom Party leader with holding talks with the People’s Party to form a new government.

“I did not take this step lightly,” the president told reporters. “I will continue to take care that the principles and rules of our constitution are correctly respected and adhered to.” The far right and the conservatives have governed together before, but on previous occasions with the Freedom Party as the junior partner. Most recently, they ran Austria from 2017 to 2019 in a government in which Kickl — a 56-year-old with a taste for provocation — served as interior minister. It collapsed in a scandal surrounding the Freedom Party’s leader at the time.

Coalition talks between the far right and conservatives aren’t guaranteed to succeed, but there are no longer any other realistic options in the current parliament and polls suggest that a new election soon could strengthen the Freedom Party further.

In its election programme titled “Fortress Austria,” the Freedom Party has called for the “remigration of uninvited foreigners,” for achieving a more “homogeneous” nation by tightly controlling borders and suspending the right to asylum via an emergency law.

The Freedom Party also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia, is highly critical of Western military aid to Ukraine and wants to bow out of the European Sky Shield Initiative, a missile defense project launched by Germany. Kickl has criticised “elites” in Brussels and called for some powers to be brought back from the European Union to Austria.

Van der Bellen noted that the new government won’t face an easy task.

“The economic environment is difficult. Austria is in a persistent recession, unemployment is rising; at the same time our state budget must be restructured,” he said. “It’s not likely that all the measures will be popular, but they will have to be implemented.” He also pointed to the geopolitical threats Austria faces, particularly as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and pointed to the importance of “constructively strengthening European cooperation in the Union, also in the interest of Austrian industry and exporters.” And the head of state, a liberal who originally hails from the environmentalist Greens, said he and Kickl had discussed media freedom in Austria at length.

Kickl is confident of finding “viable solutions” in coalition talks, “and he wants this responsibility,” the President said.

Kickl strode past reporters without commenting as he left the meeting.

Herbert Kickl, leader of the Freedom Party of Austria speaks at the national broadcaster studio, set up in the parliament building, in Vienna, Austria, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, after polls closed in the country’s national election.
| Photo Credit: AP

Austria’s far-right Freedom Party was headed for its first win in a national parliamentary election on Sunday (September 29, 2024), finishing ahead of the governing conservatives after tapping into voters’ anxieties about immigration, inflation, Ukraine and other concerns, a projection showed. But its chances of governing were unclear.

A projection for ORF public television, based on counting of more than half the votes, put support for the Freedom Party at 29.2% and Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s Austrian People’s Party at 26.3%. The center-left Social Democrats were in third place with 20.5%.

Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister and longtime campaign strategist who has led the Freedom Party since 2021, wants to become Austria’s new chancellor on the back of the first far-right national election win in post-World War II Austria.

But to become Austria’s new leader, he would need a coalition partner to command a majority in the lower house of parliament — and rivals have said they won’t work with Kickl in government.

The far right has tapped into voter frustration over high inflation, the war in Ukraine and the COVID pandemic. It has also built on worries about migration.

In its election program, titled “Fortress Austria,” the Freedom Party calls for “remigration of uninvited foreigners,” for achieving a more “homogeneous” nation by tightly controlling borders and suspending the right to asylum via an emergency law.

The Freedom Party also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia, is highly critical of Western military aid to Ukraine and wants to bow out of the European Sky Shield Initiative, a missile defense project launched by Germany. Kickl has criticized “elites” in Brussels and called for some powers to be brought back from the European Union to Austria.

“We don’t need to change our position, because we have always said that we’re ready to lead a government, we’re ready to push forward this change in Austria side by side with the people,” Kickl said in an appearance alongside other party leaders on ORF. “The other parties should ask themselves where they stand on democracy,” he added, arguing that they should “sleep on the result.”

Nehammer said it was “bitter” that his party missed out on first place, but noted that he had brought it back from lower poll ratings. He has often said that he won’t form a coalition with Kickl and said that “what I said before the election, I also say after the election.”

More than 6.3 million people age 16 and over were eligible to vote for the new parliament in Austria, an EU member that has a policy of military neutrality.

Kickl has achieved a turnaround since Austria’s last parliamentary election in 2019. In June, the Freedom Party narrowly won a nationwide vote for the first time in the European Parliament election, which also brought gains for other European far-right parties. The party is a long-established political force but Sunday’s projected result, if confirmed, would be its best yet in a national parliamentary election — beating the 26.9% it scored in 1999.

In 2019, its support slumped to 16.2% after a scandal brought down a government in which it was the junior coalition partner. Then-vice chancellor and Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache resigned following the publication of a secretly recorded video in which he appeared to offer favors to a purported Russian investor.

The leader of the Social Democrats, a party that led many of Austria’s post-World War II governments, positioned himself as the polar opposite to Kickl. Andreas Babler ruled out governing with the far right and has labeled Kickl “a threat to democracy.”

While the Freedom Party has recovered, the popularity of Nehammer’s People’s Party, which currently leads a coalition government with the environmentalist Greens as junior partners, declined sharply compared with 2019. The Greens’ support also was projected to drop to just under 9%, and the outgoing coalition appeared to be well short of a majority.

During the election campaign, Nehammer portrayed his party, which has taken a tough line on immigration in recent years, as “the strong center” that would guarantee stability amid multiple crises.

But those crises, ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and resulting rising energy prices and inflation, also cost it support. The government also angered many Austrians in 2022 with a short-lived coronavirus vaccine mandate, the first in Europe.

But the recent flooding caused by Storm Boris that hit Austria and other countries in Central Europe brought the environment back into the election debate and may have helped Nehammer slightly narrow the gap.

The People’s Party is the far right’s only way into government.

Nehammer has repeatedly excluded joining a government led by Kickl, describing him as a “security risk” for the country, but hasn’t ruled out a coalition with the Freedom Party in and of itself — which would imply Kickl renouncing a position in government.

The likelihood of Kickl agreeing to such a deal if he wins the election is very low, leading political scientist Peter Filzmaier said before the election.

The most probable alternative would be an alliance between the People’s Party and the Social Democrats — with or without the liberal Neos, who took about 9% of the vote.