The political party on the verge of leading Austria will take an already strong country into a growing group of countries turning to the far side of European politics. It flirted with Nazi slogans, reached out to Russia and issued warnings from Holocaust survivor groups. It campaigned on promises to deport immigrants and ban Islamist political forms.
The Freedom Party, known as the FPÖ, and its leader, Herbert Kickl, were given the chance to form a ruling coalition this week, after efforts to keep them from power collapsed. If they succeed in forming a government, it would shock the political system in Austria and also disrupt Western Europe, where far-right parties are similarly on the rise in France, Germany and elsewhere.
But it won't be a surprise.
The rise of the Freedom Party follows years of growing acceptance of the far right in Austrian politics. Its growth has been helped by scandals and ideological shifts in the conservative mainstream party that has led Austrian governments for 15 of the past 25 years.
Unlike in neighboring Germany, where all other parties have refused to include Germany's right-populist Alternative in the ruling coalition, other parties in Austria have allowed the Freedom Party to share power for years as a junior partner.
The Freedom Party has increased its appeal in recent elections with an anti-establishment message that harshly criticizes immigration, Covid restrictions, the European Union and supporting Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression. The party has gained support from working-class workers, university graduates and women critically. In the European Parliament elections this summer, it was the most popular party among Austrian voters under the age of 35.
“The idea that the FPÖ is somehow gifted in politics, that train has long since left the station,” said Laurenz Enser-Jedenastik, a political scientist at the University of Vienna.
The Freedom Party was founded by former members of the SS, the Nazi military, in the 1950s. It was largely shunned in its early years, but gradually became part of the political movement.
The party first entered national government with the progressive Social Democrats in 1983 and has served in four coalitions since, the most recent six years ago. It also operates at the state level and is federal in most of Austria's nine states.
Until the late 1980s, the Freedom Party was a small, prestigious organization with strong ties to certain nationalist universities. The new leader, Jörg Haider, attracted many voters by adopting a campaign rhetoric that criticized foreigners.
That focus has been the driving force behind today's party, sharp and reinforced by Mr. Kickl, who wrote Mr. Haider's speeches early in his career. Mr. Kickl directed the party to increasingly provocative slogans, including the xenophobic “Viennese blood – too many foreigners does no one any good.”
In 2017, the Freedom Party joined a ruling coalition with the Conservative People's Party. Karin Kneissl, then the Freedom Party's choice for foreign minister, was widely criticized for dancing at her 2018 wedding to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. He has since moved to Russia.
The administration and the coalition quickly fell into a scandal involving a hidden camera, a fake Russian heir and the former leader of the Freedom Party in 2019.
During the administration, Mr. Kickl previously served as the country's interior minister, putting him in charge of immigration control, a subject that was part of the party's platform.
He made headlines at the time for proposing to “concentrate” refugees in central institutions. Although Mr. Kickl later claimed that he was not trying to provoke, many believe that his use of a Nazi-era reference to concentration camps was intentional.
It was also undivided. The group of Mr. Kickl has since repeatedly used the term “Volkskanzler” — “people's chancellor” — used by Hitler.
While others in the party want to tone down the anti-immigrant rhetoric, Mr. Kickl has used raw, emotional appeals to Austrian-born workers. He faced discontent with the influx of refugees into Austria from the Middle East, and later Ukraine. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, he opposed vaccination orders, lockdowns and masks.
In last year's campaign, Mr. Kickl has promised to build a “Fortress Austria” – through strict border control measures, forced deportations and the suspension of asylum rights for refugees, which would require breaking the European Union's deal on migration. He called for a change in the methods aimed at combating climate change and for a renewed focus on fossil fuels.
He also emphasized political reforms that some analysts say will push Austria into a more authoritarian model of government, like Hungary's Viktor Orban. Those changes include new referendum procedures that would allow a small percentage of the electorate to force a national vote to overthrow the government or fire individual ministers.
The platform of Mr. Kickl attracted many voters, the party won many seats in the September elections for the national assembly. “There is more need for some political strength,” said Christoph Hofinger, an Austrian election researcher.
For some, it caused alarm. After the election, Christoph Heubner, vice-president of the International Auschwitz Committee, said that for Holocaust survivors, the victory added “a shocking new chapter to their worries and concerns.”
The Freedom Party benefited, in part, from the problems of the People's Party. The party won the chancellorship in 2017, after turning to the right on many issues. But the People's Party was soon mired in a series of scandals, including one related to rigged voting ideas that were published in the press. It has also faced voter discontent over spending hikes and the Covid restrictions, along with its latest coalition partner, the Green Party.
After losing the election, Karl Nehammer, former chancellor of the People's Party, said he would not join a coalition with Mr. Kickl. Many saw the promise, made during the campaign, as a game to hold on to the chancellor, rather than an ideological one, as the two parties have a long history of working together in state and federal government.
“There has never been a fundamental criticism of the FPÖ's understanding of democracy or the rule of law” from the Conservatives, Mr. Enser-Jedenastik.
Despite months of trying, the People's Party was unable to form a coalition without the far right. And Mr. Nehammer announced his resignation as chancellor this week, paving the way for the Freedom Party to rise to the top of the coalition.
In the governing coalition, Mr. Kickl will not be able to fulfill all his promises. The next Austrian government will need to close the budget deficit, which could hamper its economic agenda, which includes tax cuts and increased public spending.
But the party's popularity will give him a strong voice as he pushes for reform of policies against immigrants and refugees, according to analysts. Probably among them: reducing social services for non-German speakers or reducing financial aid for refugees.
During the fall election, 29 percent of Austrians voted for the Freedom Party. Current polls now put voter support at over 35 percent.
“If Kickl ever feels that the other side is not taking these negotiations seriously, he just stands up from the table and forces the election early,” said Mr. Hoffinger.
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