Austrians' Concerns Over Mass Migration, Ukraine, Brussels Diktat Trigger Election Blowout
© AP Photo / Andreea Alexandru
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Sunday's parliamentary elections in Austria saw right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) nearly double its standing, with the ruling Christian Democrat Austrian People's Party (OVP)/Green coalition losing its parliamentary majority. Sputnik asked former FPO MEP Andreas Moelzer what's behind the dramatic electoral swing.
Austrian Chancellor and OVP leader Karl Nehammer conceded his party's failure to close the gap on Herbert Kickl's opposition FPO. "It was a race to catch up, and unfortunately we didn't manage it," Nehammer said, speaking at the OVP's headquarters after Sunday's vote.
"We have written a piece of history together today," Kickl, a former interior minister and campaign advisor who has led the FPO since 2021, told supporters. "We have opened a door to a new era."
Kickl's FPO garnered 29.2% of the vote, enjoying a dramatic 13% swing from the 2019 election, and nearly doubling its seats in parliament from 31 to 58. Nehammer's OVP lost 19 seats, winning 52, while its partners in the coalition government, the Greens, lost 11 seats, winning only 15 mandates.
With 183 seats in Austria's National Council and 92 required for a majority, the OVP/Green coalition now has less than it needs to form a government, and would need to tap the Social Democratic Party of Austria with its 41 mandates, and/or the New Austria and Liberal Forum party, which won 17 seats, to cobble together a workable coalition.
29 September, 18:22 GMT
“The will of the electorate is clear: the majority wants a center-right government under the leadership of the FPO,” former FPO Member of European Parliament Andreas Moelzer told Sputnik, commenting on the election results.
The list of OVP/Green policies helping to account for the swing is "long," Moelzer said, starting with the current government's policy on immigration.
“Many people in Austria have fears if their children and grandchildren will be able to preserve their national and cultural identity due to the uncontrolled mass immigration during the last years. The people are dissatisfied because the European Union is unable or unwilling to protect its external borders,” Moelzer explained. Many Austrians also “dislike Brussels’ increasing influence” in general, “and fear further loss of sovereignty,” he said.
The government’s harsh Covid-era policies, from lockdowns to mandatory jabs, are another sore point for many voters, the observer said, pointing out that in addition to undermining Austrians' “fundamental rights,” the restrictions “led to the increase of the public debt due to financial aid for shop owners by the state.”
“Then there is the Ukraine policy of the current government, which supports the hawkish policy of the EU. The sanctions against Russia have led to a dramatic increase of the inflation rate, and Austria’s neutrality is gradually [being] abolished as participation in the NATO ‘Sky Shield’ project shows,” Moelzer said. “For the overwhelming majority of Austrians, our neutrality is very important,” and even part of the country’s “national identity,” he stressed.
Chancellor Nehammer has indicated that he’s not prepared to form a coalition with the FPO.
“If the FPO remains in opposition, it will be a stronger force than now, exerting stronger political pressure on the government, especially in policies like immigration, the war in Ukraine and so on,” Moelzer predicted.
"The election result in Austria confirms the European trend that people are supporting increasingly patriotic freedom parties like the FPO in Austria because they want a fundamental change in key policies like immigration or protection of fundamental rights. And we also see the reaction of the political establishments, which demonize these European freedom parties. But the stronger the freedom parties across Europe are, the more difficult it becomes for the establishment to continue is exclusion strategy againt the FPO and like-minded parties," Moelzer summed up.
