{"id":209053,"date":"2025-01-06T18:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T18:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/06\/austria-could-get-a-far-right-chancellor-heres-what-to-know\/"},"modified":"2025-01-06T18:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T18:12:10","slug":"austria-could-get-a-far-right-chancellor-heres-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/06\/austria-could-get-a-far-right-chancellor-heres-what-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Austria Could Get a Far-Right Chancellor. Here\u2019s What to Know."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/06\/multimedia\/06austria-WWK-zcqk\/06austria-WWK-zcqk-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Austria Could Get a Far-Right Chancellor. Here\u2019s What to Know.\" title=\"Austria Could Get a Far-Right Chancellor. Here\u2019s What to Know.\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The president of Austria on Monday gave Herbert Kickl, the outspoken leader of the Alpine country\u2019s far-right Freedom Party, the task of trying to form a government coalition, three months after the party won the most votes in a general election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMr. Kickl is confident that he can find viable solutions in the context of government negotiations, and he wants this responsibility,\u201d President Alexander Van der Bellen said during a five-minute speech after meeting with Mr. Kickl.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The president\u2019s request starts a process that could make Mr. Kickl, an anti-immigrant firebrand who has vowed to make the country a \u201cfortress,\u201d Austria\u2019s first far-right chancellor later this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-3b038129\">What led to this?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Freedom Party <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/29\/world\/europe\/far-right-austria-election.html\" title=\"\">finished first<\/a> in the Sept. 29 election, with nearly 30 percent of the vote, but was well short of a majority. Despite the victory at the ballot box, it initially looked as if the party, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/29\/world\/europe\/austria-election-freedom-party-kickl.html\" title=\"\">founded by ex-Nazis in the 1950s<\/a>, would not be part of the new government because mainstream parties refused to work with Mr. Kickl, whom they called a danger to democracy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Karl Nehammer, the chancellor and head of the conservative Austrian People\u2019s Party, which finished in second place with 26.5 percent, was tasked first by President Van der Bellen with trying to form a government. Chancellor Nehammer reached out to the center-left Social Democrats and the upstart Neos party to try to reach an agreement for a coalition government. But they were unable to bridge their differences over core budget issues, and late last week, first Neos, then the Social Democrats pulled out of the talks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Saturday, Mr. Nehammer announced he was resigning both as chancellor and party leader. His hastily elected replacement as party leader, Christian Stocker, then announced that \u2014 despite promises made during the campaign \u2014 the People\u2019s Party, known as the \u00d6VP, would be open to coalition talks with the Freedom Party.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-66729764\">What is the Freedom Party?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The party was founded not long after World War II by former members of the SS, the Nazi paramilitary police. The party introduces Mr. Kickl using the word \u201cVolkskanzler,\u201d German for people\u2019s chancellor, before campaign speeches, which evokes the rise of German fascism and Adolf Hitler.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It has a history of denigrating migrants in Austria as criminals and welfare sponges. Under a banner of \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.festung-oesterreich.at\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Fortress Austria<\/a>,\u201d Mr. Kickl has called for a temporary halt to accepting new asylum seekers and for a law that would ban them from becoming Austrian citizens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The party is also close to Moscow \u2014 it signed a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/12\/19\/world\/europe\/austrias-far-right-signs-a-cooperation-pact-with-putins-party.html\" title=\"\">cooperation contract<\/a> with President Vladimir Putin\u2019s United Russia Party in 2016 \u2014 and is against aid to Ukraine to support its defense against Russia\u2019s invasion. It also has opposed sanctions on Russia. Citing the country\u2019s constitutional neutrality, the party is also against Austria joining NATO.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The party has been in the national government five times already, but always as a relatively weak junior partner. Mr. Kickl was the minister of the interior from 2017 until 2019, when a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/05\/18\/world\/europe\/austria-strache-resigns-video.html\" title=\"\">scandal involving one of Mr. Kickl\u2019s predecessors<\/a> as party leader forced the conservative chancellor at the time to end that coalition. The party has also been in coalition at the state level with the conservatives.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-56cc5cd2\">What are the possible outcomes for Austria\u2019s government?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Although the conservatives and the Freedom Party differ on some key points, like their views on Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, they overlap on many other points. Experts believe a coalition agreement \u2014 which lays out a government\u2019s intended program \u2014 between the two right-wing parties will be easier to hammer out than the previous attempt with parties from across the political spectrum. Such talks usually take weeks or even months in Austria.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Kickl has since the election insisted that he should lead the government. Since the Freedom Party has the most seats in the 183-seat Parliament \u2014 57 to 51 for the conservatives \u2014 he has a good claim to being named chancellor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If the parties cannot find common ground, the president would have to call new elections, because no other combination of parties could add up to a majority. A new vote so soon would be extremely rare for Austria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-4229267c\">Why is it important?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Kickl would become the first far-right chancellor in Austria since the end of World War II. While voters in many European countries have drifted to the right, few leaders have been as outspoken against immigrants and foreigners as he has, which is certain to raise tensions among Austria\u2019s partners in the European Union. (Since becoming Italy\u2019s prime minister in 2022, Giorgia Meloni has <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/10\/17\/world\/europe\/meloni-surrogacy-migrants-italy.html\" title=\"\">distanced herself from her hard-right past<\/a>, aligning with the Western mainstream on key international issues. By contrast, Prime Minister Victor Orban of Hungary \u2014 who visited Vienna last year at the invitation of the Freedom Party \u2014 has been at odds with his <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/08\/world\/europe\/hungary-viktor-orban-trump.html\" title=\"\">fellow European Union leaders<\/a> for years over his right-wing nationalist stances.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Although Austria only has 9.1 million citizens, its position near the geographical center of the E.U. and its trade relations, especially with Germany, the bloc\u2019s biggest economy, gives the country an outsized importance.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-c738c7\">What has the reaction been?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Several hundred people protested in front of the Hofburg, the presidential palace in central Vienna, as Mr. Van der Bellen and Mr. Kickl met on Monday. They held signs that warned about right-wing extremism and chanted, \u201cNever again Volkskanzler.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Muslim and Jewish groups expressed their concern after the national election in September. Oskar Deutsch, the president of the Jewish Community in Vienna, said then that the success of the Freedom Party felt \u201cthreatening\u201d to many in his community.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/06\/world\/europe\/austria-coalition-far-right-chancellor.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The president of Austria on Monday gave Herbert Kickl, the outspoken leader of the Alpine country\u2019s far-right Freedom Party, the task of trying to form a government coalition, three months after the party won the most votes in a general election. \u201cMr. Kickl is confident that he can find viable solutions in the context of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/06\/multimedia\/06austria-WWK-zcqk\/06austria-WWK-zcqk-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[164478,54575,164985,4949,164984,67,896,724,164986,59027,671,90287,164426,44184,164476,54576,137131,164987,164477],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209053"}],"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=209053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209055,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209053\/revisions\/209055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}