The Freedom Party was headed for the first far-right win in a national parliamentary election in post-World War II Austria on Sunday, finishing ahead of the governing conservatives after tapping voters' anxieties about issues including immigration, inflation, and Ukraine, a projection showed. But its chances of governing were unclear, the AP reports. A projection for ORF public television, based on counting of over 90% of the votes, put support for the Freedom Party at 28.9% and Chancellor Karl Nehammer's Austrian People's Party at 26.3%. The center-left Social Democrats were in third place with 21%. The outgoing government—a coalition of Nehammer's party and the environmentalist Greens—lost its majority in the lower house of parliament.
Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister and longtime campaign strategist who has led the Freedom Party since 2021, wants to be chancellor. But to become Austria's new leader, he would need a coalition partner to command a parliamentary majority. Rivals have said they won't work with Kickl in government. The far right has benefited from frustration over high inflation, the war in Ukraine, and the COVID-19 pandemic. It has also built on worries about migration. In its election program, titled "Fortress Austria," the Freedom Party calls for "remigration of uninvited foreigners," for achieving a more "homogeneous" nation by tightly controlling borders, and suspending the right to asylum via an emergency law.
Nehammer said it was "bitter" that his party missed out on first place but noted he brought it back from lower poll ratings, per the AP. He has often said he won't form a coalition with Kickl and said that "what I said before the election, I also say after the election." The Freedom Party is a long-established force, but Sunday's projected result would be its best yet in a national parliamentary election, beating the 26.9% it scored in 1999. More than 6.3 million people were eligible to vote for the new parliament in Austria, an EU member that has a policy of military neutrality.
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