{"id":144703,"date":"2024-09-30T08:23:07","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T08:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/30\/far-right-party-wins-austrian-general-election-but-may-struggle-to-form-government\/"},"modified":"2024-09-30T08:23:07","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T08:23:07","slug":"far-right-party-wins-austrian-general-election-but-may-struggle-to-form-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/30\/far-right-party-wins-austrian-general-election-but-may-struggle-to-form-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Far-right party wins Austrian general election – but may struggle to form government"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Far-right<\/div>


\n<\/p>\n

\n

The far-right Freedom Party has won the general election in Austria.<\/p>\n

Led by Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister who was dismissed over the country’s Ibiza scandal<\/a><\/strong>, the party finished first ahead of the ruling conservatives, with the centre-left Social Democrats in third place.<\/p>\n

However, despite this, the party’s chances of actually governing remain unclear.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Herbet Kickl speaking in Vienna over the weekend. Pic: Reuters
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n \"Pic:\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Pic: Reuters
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Preliminary official results showed the Freedom Party finishing with 29.2% of the vote, Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s Austrian People’s Party second with 26.5% and the Social Democrats with 21%, according to a near-complete count reported by national public broadcaster ORF.<\/p>\n

The outgoing government, a coalition of Mr Nehammer’s party and the Greens, lost its majority in the lower house of parliament.<\/p>\n

Mr Kickl has said he wants to be chancellor, but to become Austria’s new leader he would need a coalition partner and rivals have said they will not work with him in government.<\/p>\n

He has also drawn criticism for his use of the term “Volkskanzler,” or chancellor of the people, which was used by the Nazis to describe Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.<\/p>\n

Mr Kickl has rejected the comparison.<\/p>\n

The party has tapped into anxieties around immigration, inflation, COVID, and the war in Ukraine and its strong performance follows recent gains for the far right elsewhere in Europe<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In its election programme, called Fortress Austria, the Freedom Party called for the “remigration of uninvited foreigners” to achieve a more “homogenous” nation.<\/p>\n

The party also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia, is highly critical of Western military aid to Ukraine, and wants to leave the European Sky Shield Initiative – a missile defence project launched by Germany.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n \"Pic:\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Pic: Reuters
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In his closing campaign speech on Saturday, Mr Kickl claimed sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine were hurting Austria even more than Russia.<\/p>\n

Speaking separately alongside other party leaders on ORF, he said: “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.”<\/p>\n

Mr Nehammer described Mr Kickl as a “security risk” for the country.<\/p>\n

Along with other political leaders, he has said he would not form a coalition with Mr Kickl.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:<\/strong>
Vance v Walz: VP debate promises to be spicy<\/a>
Flooding in Nepal kills at least 129<\/a>
Is wider war in the Middle East inevitable?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n \"Follow
\n <\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n
\n Follow Sky News on WhatsApp<\/span><\/p>\n

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News<\/p>\n

Tap here<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

If the Freedom Party is unable to form a government, an alternative could be an alliance between the People’s Party and the Social Democrats – with or without the liberal Neos, who took 9% of the vote.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Who is Herbert Kickl?<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n

After the Ibiza affair in 2019, 55-year-old Herbert Kickl became leader of the FPO in 2021.<\/p>\n

During the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Kickl attended anti-lockdown protests and called Israel’s mass vaccination campaign “health apartheid”.<\/p>\n

He also refused to condemn those who likened lockdown measures to the Holocaust, despite Austria’s strict laws against antisemitism. <\/p>\n

He rubbished claims that those making the comparison were trivialising the Nazi regime during an interview with Austrian news outlet ORF.<\/p>\n

And in March last year, he and other FPO members left the Austrian parliament when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the chamber.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The far-right victory in Austria comes after similar successes elsewhere in Europe.<\/p>\n

Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, whose party dominates the Netherlands’ new government, congratulated the Freedom Party on social media.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

As did co-leader of the Alternative for Germany Party (AfD), Alice Weidel, whose party won recent state elections for the first time.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The far-right Freedom Party has won the general election in Austria. Led by Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister who was dismissed over the country’s Ibiza scandal, the party finished first ahead of the ruling conservatives, with the centre-left Social Democrats in third place. However, despite this, the party’s chances of actually governing remain unclear. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/09\/768x432\/skynews-austria-politics-far-right_6701360.jpg?20240930073100","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[40667,50,724,521,1032,3954,1697,7483,8613],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144703"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144705,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144703\/revisions\/144705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}