The extreme right is heading this Sunday for its first victory in a parliamentary election in Austria, according to the first projections broadcast by the Austrian television ORF, which already uses real votes in its calculations. The Freedom Party (FPÖ) would obtain 29.1% of the votes, a historic result, leaving the Christian Democrats (ÖVP) in second place, with 26.2%. The Social Democrats (SPÖ) gather 20.4% support (their worst result), the Neos liberals 8.8% and the Greens 8.6%, always according to the first projections.
The Freedom Party (FPÖ) entered the elections with the wind in its favor, as leader in the polls for almost two years and its first national victory in the European elections last June, one more sign to Brussels of the weight they have reached in the European Union by far-right formations. He achieved it with 25.4%, just one point behind the Christian Democrats (ÖVP), who also in the campaign for the legislative elections this Sunday have closed the gap with the ultras – although with a forecast of losing more than 11 percentage points over the 2019 result― in the face of key elections for Austria and which the Union is also pending.
If the scrutiny confirms the first data, the ultras would surpass the result achieved by their most charismatic leader, the late Jörg Haider, in 1999. Then, their 26.9% left the FPÖ in second place and failed to lead the Executive.
In a campaign marked by the rise of the ultras, who have thus recovered from the setback of 2019 (they fell to 16.2%) involved in suspicions of corruption, and in the final stretch by the serious flooding of the Boris storm, with five dead in the country (of nine million inhabitants), the FPÖ led by Herbert Kickl has faced almost all parties. He has no options to govern alone, he would need partners. Social Democrats, the Greens and the Liberals have rejected collaboration with a party that is radically anti-immigration, Eurosceptic, pro-Russian and that has not ceased to be confronted with accusations of xenophobia and anti-Semitism.
The Christian Democrat leader (ÖVP) and current chancellor, Karl Nehammer (51 years old), has insisted throughout the campaign that the danger to the country’s security is the maximum ultra leader, Herbert Kickl, but he has not completely excluded a possible coalition to the FPÖ, where he says there are “reasonable” people.
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