{"id":415597,"date":"2025-01-07T12:55:15","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T11:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/01\/07\/austria-governo-kickl-fpo\/"},"modified":"2025-01-07T15:34:13","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T14:34:13","slug":"austria-herbert-kickls-far-right-could-lead-the-next-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/01\/07\/austria-herbert-kickls-far-right-could-lead-the-next-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Austria: Herbert Kickl’s far-right could lead the next government"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – A far-right<\/strong> prime minister may soon take office in Austria since, after over\u00a0three months,\u00a0the traditional parties failed to reach an agreement<\/strong>\u00a0on a coalition executive. Thus, the President of the Republic\u00a0mandated<\/strong> Herbert Kickl,<\/strong> the\u00a0leader of the pro-Russian and anti-migrant ultra-right,\u00a0to form the next government. If he succeeds, it will be the first time the radical right has been in charge in Vienna since World War II<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The missed opportunity of traditional parties<\/h3>\n

After the victory<\/a> of the Austrian Freedom Party (FP\u00d6)<\/strong>, the extreme right-wing populist and Euroskeptic formation created from\u00a0the ashes of Nazism<\/strong> and led by Herbert Kickl<\/strong>, at elections on\u00a0September 29, the President of the Republic Alexander Van der Bellen<\/strong>\u00a0instructed outgoing Chancellor Karl Nehammer<\/strong> to initiate negotiations to form a government<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

However, the negotiations that Nehammer, leader of the People’s Party (\u00d6VP) <\/strong>currently in power with the Greens, started\u00a0with the Social Democratic Party (SP\u00d6)<\/strong> and the Neos<\/strong> liberals to keep the ultra-right out of the control room<\/strong> lasted little more than three months, until January 3, when centrists called themselves out<\/a> from negotiations, citing unreconcilable disagreements with potential partners<\/strong> in a three-way coalition.<\/p>\n

\"Karl<\/a>
Outgoing Austrian chancellor and\u00a0\u00d6VP leader Karl Nehammer (foto: European Council)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At that point, conservatives and socialists continued to negotiate. Finally, on January 4, Nehammer announced that it was impossible to agree on a common program<\/strong>. At the same time, the outgoing chancellor announced his imminent resignation as leader of the \u00d6VP and as head of the Austrian government<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The far right in government<\/h3>\n

Given the numbers in the Nationalrat<\/i><\/strong>, the lower house of the Austrian legislature (where the FP\u00d6 holds 57 of the 183 total seats, the \u00d6VP 51, the SP\u00d6 41, Neos 18, and the Greens 16), the head of state had no other option but to give Kickl an exploratory mandate to create an executive, w<\/strong>hich, if successful, would be the first led by the ethno-nationalist ultra-right since 1945<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So, Van der Bellen met <\/a>(January 6) the leader of the FP\u00d6, for whom the only way forward is an alliance with the Populars<\/strong>. It would not be the first time the two parties have governed together. However,\u00a0there is no precedent in Austria’s modern history<\/strong>\u00a0where the chancellorship is in the hands of a post-Nazi party. In both instances when the FP\u00d6\u00a0was in government (2000 and 2017),<\/strong> it was\u00a0the minor coalition partner with the conservatives.<\/p>\n

\n

Statement on the government formation mandate to Herbert Kickl. pic.twitter.com\/PSOketndHI<\/a><\/p>\n

– Alexander Van der Bellen (@vanderbellen) January 6, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to the president of the Republic, Kickl “has the necessary confidence to find workable solutions<\/strong> within the framework of government negotiations and wants to assume this responsibility<\/strong>.” Now we have to see how the talks with Nehammer’s orphaned \u00d6VP (which does not have positions too far removed from the FP\u00d6 on some points, starting with migration) will go. If there is no agreement, the only option will be early elections,<\/strong>\u00a0something the ultra-right sees favorably, as the most recent polls give it further growth, with\u00a0around 35 percent support<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Whoever leads the next executive will still have to take on the difficult task of securing public accounts<\/strong>: Austria has been in recession for a couple of years and risks an excessive deficit infringement procedure<\/strong> from Brussels<\/a>, as its deficit-to-GDP ratio is at 3.7 percent<\/strong> (European rules set the ceiling at 3 percent).<\/p>\n

The positions of the\u00a0FP\u00d6<\/h3>\n

Kickl, who, in the European Parliament, is allied with Matteo Salvini<\/strong>, Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong>, Marine Le Pen,<\/strong> and Geert Wilders<\/strong> in the\u00a0Patriots for Europe (PfE) group<\/strong>, is a highly controversial figure. He has<\/strong> never concealed his sympathies for the National Socialist past of the Austrian Republic<\/strong>, for example, by casually using the Hitlerian expression Volkskanzler<\/i><\/strong> (“People’s Chancellor”).<\/p>\n

\"Herbert<\/a>
Herbert Kickl during an electoral\u00a0rally (foto: Alex Halada\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following the so-called Ibiza gate<\/strong>, the scandal that led to the fall\u00a0of the executive led by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz,<\/strong> and early elections in 2019, Kickl – who at the time was Interior<\/strong>\u00a0minister<\/strong>\u00a0– intercepted the widespread discontent<\/strong> in the population, winning\u00a0especially on issues such as the increased\u00a0cost of living<\/strong>, the repercussions\u00a0of the war in Ukraine<\/strong> (more than 80 percent of Vienna’s imported gas from abroad comes from Russia.\u00a0The FP\u00d6 advocates the need to stop military aid to Kyiv<\/strong> and lifting\u00a0sanctions against the Kremlin<\/strong>), the economic crisis<\/strong> following the pandemic, and immigration<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

On the latter point, the election program<\/strong> of the FP\u00d6 in the\u00a0September elections was called, again tracing the words of Nazi propaganda during World War II, “Fortress Austria<\/strong>” and called for the introduction of schemes of re-immigration<\/strong>\u00a0along the lines <\/a> of the German AfD, to expel “uninvited foreigners”<\/strong> from the country and create a “homogeneous nation<\/strong>,” i.e., a white ethno-state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The president of the Republic mandated the leader of the FP\u00d6, the post-Nazi, ultranationalist, pro-Russian party that won last September’s elections, to explore alternatives for forming an executive. It would be the first time since World War II that the far-right has come to power in Vienna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":415583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[30125,26897,28344,28345,29079,30122],"class_list":["post-415597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-alexander-van-der-bellen-and","tag-austria-en","tag-fpo-en","tag-herbert-kickl-en","tag-karl-nehammer-en","tag-ovp-and"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415597"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":415636,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415597\/revisions\/415636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}