Polls open in Austria’s parliamentary elections with far-right tipped to win

The Freedom Party is set to win a national election for the first time in its history as it taps into voters’ anxieties about immigration, inflation, and the war in Ukraine.

Polls have opened in Austria’s parliamentary elections, with the far-right Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreich) seemingly the most popular amongst voters who are anxious about immigration, inflation, and the war in Ukraine.

Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister and long-time campaign strategist who has led the party since 2021, wants to become Austria’s new chancellor.

Speaking at a campaign rally on Friday, he demanded the “remigration” of illegal immigrants.

“It is not acceptable that we have to protect our people from the people who are coming here looking for protection. Then, something isn’t right with the system anymore. And that’s why we finally need remigration. I don’t even know why this word is supposed to be so evil,” he said.

Kickl has also sparked controversy on the campaign trail by using the term ‘Volkskanzler’, or chancellor of the people, which was used by the Nazis to describe Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.

Polls estimate the Freedom Party will take around 28% of the vote, well below the threshold needed for an outright win. But finding coalition partners might be tough.

Chancellor Karl Nehammer, whose Austrian People’s Party (Österreichische Volkspartei) is polling second at 24%, has already ruled out teaming up with Kickl and urged voters to vote for him to prevent the far-right from coming to power.

“I have made it clear with whom it is not possible to form a responsible, viable government. The current leader of the FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria) does not fulfill these criteria. That’s why I excluded him,” he said in Vienna on Frida.