Last Sunday, the results of the Austrian parliamentary elections were an upset. The “Freedom Party” (FPÖ), the far-right party that had been in the minority until then, won the elections with a historic score, the highest since 1945: it obtained 28.8% of the vote, i.e. 13 points more than at the last general election in 2019.
At the party’s helm since 2021 is Herbert Kickl, nicknamed the “Austrian Orbán” after Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Kickl’s Austrian party, the FPÖ, is an ally of the French RN (Rassemblement National) in the European Parliament.
The worrying results of these parliamentary elections make Austria yet another European country to give historic prominence to the far right, following in the footsteps of France, Italy and the Netherlands.