VIENNA: Political parties on the European right celebrated Sunday’s (Sep 29) parliamentary election victory by Austria’s Freedom Party (FPO) as a boost for national conservatives amid advances by the hard right fuelled by worries about immigration.
Led by Herbert Kickl, who capitalised on a misfiring economy and concerns that Austria has taken in people faster than it can integrate them, the FPO won around 29 per cent of the vote, a record result that may give it a platform to lead the next government.
Kickl must find a partner to form a stable coalition and he is loathed by other party leaders, who have refused to serve under him and quickly began discussing the possibility of sounding out alternatives to an FPO-led government.
But there were warm words from allies in Europe, where the FPO forms part of a right-wing group inside the European Parliament led by France’s far-right National Rally (RN).
Its leader Marine Le Pen expressed delight at the victory and said it showed those parties were advancing.
“After the Italian, Dutch and French elections, this tidal wave which supports the defence of national interests, the safeguarding of identities and the resurrection of sovereignties, confirms the triumph of the people everywhere,” Le Pen wrote in a post on X.
