Austria’s victorious right-wing Freedom Party scored best with closed-border policies and unrivalled mastery of social media

After reshaping Austria’s political landscape on Sunday, the victorious right-wing populist Freedom Party (FPÖ) turned its gaze on Monday to Vienna’s stuccoed Hofburg.
With the FPÖ in first place after the general election on a record 29.2 per cent, the lights burned late in the former royal palace from where Austrian president Alexander Van der Bellen will issue the formal mandate to start coalition talks. For victorious FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl, any such talks must end with him in the chancellery and his party leading government.
But Kickl has few natural coalition allies and a powerful adversary in Van der Bellen. He used an unusually pointed election night address to demand Austria’s new government preserve “the pillars of our liberal democracy”.
“Now it is about talking to each other, negotiating, and finding good solutions and compromises,” saidVan der Bellen, whose non-executive and politically neutral role hasn’t stopped him clashing publicly in the past with Kickl.
A group of protesters outside the former royal palace on Sunday said what Van der Bellen could not, holding signs and chanting: “Nazis out” and “Never Kickl”.
The jubilant FPÖ leader had two men in mind when he appeared before cheering supporters late on Sunday evening.
One was his populist mentor Jörg Haider, who scored a previous record of 26 per cent in 1999 but died in a car crash nine years later. “I think he would forgive us, and be proud of us, because we have made history,” said Kickl of Haider.
Then, in a swipe at his Hofburg adversary, Kickl added: “Let no one tell you that we are right-wing extremists, we are nothing other than the centre of society.”
Opinions differ on whether Sunday evening shattered Austria’s political centre, or shifted the centre further right. What is clear is that it marks the domination of postwar Austrian politics by two parties who mostly shared power: the centre-left Social Democrats (SPÖ) and centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP). The latter finished second on Sunday after losing a third of its support without enough votes to return to power with the Greens.
A study of voter migration on Monday laid plain the scale of the FPÖ victory: of its 1.4 million votes, more than 400,000 came from previous ÖVP voters, frustrated by a stagnant economy and inflation, as well from previous non-voters. With its “Fortress Austria” promise to close borders and cut asylum to a minimum, the FPÖ appealed most to the population with its policies and an unrivalled mastery of social media.
[ Far-right Freedom Party promises ‘fortress Austria’ and zero-asylum policy as country goes to pollsOpens in new window ]
The Foresight/ISA analysis showed the FPÖ scored right across the board: with majorities among all voter groups up to 59, those with a lower level of formal education, as well as voters in rural areas and urban areas except larger cities.
Despite a highly personalised campaign around Kickl, however, just two per cent told the ISA pollsters the FPÖ leader was their reason for voting the party.
That could shape talks for a coalition that either excludes the FPÖ entirely or brings the party into power with the ÖVP, but without its leader.
On Sunday ÖVP leader Karl Nehammer, the outgoing chancellor, reiterated his party’s refusal to work with Kickl after a previous difficult shared time in power.
On Monday FPÖ leaders rejected such a scenario but conceded that “various scenarios” could follow in post-election coalition talks.
“It’s perverse that the boss of the winning election party should stand down, as demanded by the bosses of the losing parties,” said Andreas Mölzer, an FPÖ grandee. “Losing 12 per cent of your support, as Nehammer has, is hardly a voter mandate.”