Sawt Falasteen - Austria far right scores historic win in national vote

While the Freedom Party (FPOe) has been in government several times, this is the first time it has won a national vote.

But even with the victory, it is not certain it will be able to form a government.

In line with far-right parties elsewhere in Europe, the FPOe has seen its popularity surge, fed by voter anger over migration, inflation and Covid restrictions.

The FPOe stood at 29.1 percent of votes, against 26.3 percent for the conservative People's Party (OeVP), according to projections based on more than 60 percent of the votes counted.

FPOe leader Herbert Kickl, who took over the scandal-tainted party in 2021 and led its recovery, said he was ready to form the government with "each and every one" of the parties in parliament.

"It can't be any more clear than today" that the country must "reconnect with the population's needs," Kickl said on national television after the results were announced.

"Our hand is outstretched in all directions," he said.

- 'Exciting time' -

At the FPOe headquarters, the atmosphere was festive, as supporters wearing traditional Austrian dresses downed glasses of beer.

"It's a real success... It will be a very, very exciting time" with the FPOe trying to form the government, said Erik Berglund, 35, a waiter. He hailed sharp-tongued Kickl as the "most competent leader".

Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who managed to close the gap to the FPOe in recent weeks in opinion polls, said at his party headquarters that he could see the disappointment of party members.

"It was a race to catch-up, and unfortunately we didn't manage it," Nehammer said, vowing to "continue to fight for the people's interests".

The OeVP's support has plunged from more than 37 percent in the last national election in 2019. The Greens with whom they governed in an unprecedented coalition were also punished, falling to 8.3 percent from almost 14 percent in 2019.

More than 6.3 million of Austria's nine million inhabitants were eligible to vote.

Nehammer reiterated his refusal to work with Kickl, who has called himself the future "Volkskanzler", the people's chancellor, as Adolf Hitler was termed in the 1930s.

Kickl regularly attacks EU sanctions against Russia and espouses the far-right concept of "remigration": expelling people of non-European ethnic backgrounds deemed to have failed to integrate.

- 'Earthquake' -

The FPOe had been widely predicted to narrowly top the vote, but Sunday's results for the party were even better than expected.

"This is certainly an earthquake and sends a shockwave through all the other parties," political analyst Thomas Hofer told AFP.

Even though the FPOe has come first however, analysts predict Nehammer is in a good position to remain chancellor if he forms a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPOe) and another party, probably the liberal NEOs.

The SPOe reached 21 percent, according to the projections, while the NEOS have 9 percent.

It would be the first time a three-party coalition governs Austria, but analysts say such a coalition will have a hard time given the right-wing shift in the country.

A coalition between the far right and the conservatives still remains a possibility says analysts, given their common platform against immigration and on other issues.

Long a political force in Austria, the FPOe's first government with the conservatives in 2000 set off widespread protests and sanctions from Brussels.

"The FPOe mainly stirs up fears and never has anything constructive to contribute," researcher Theres Friesacher, 29, told AFP after voting in Vienna, citing corruption scandals that have frequently engulfed the party.

Both past OeVP-FPOe governments were short-lived.

The last one, headed by charismatic then-OeVP leader Sebastian Kurz, collapsed over a spectacular FPOe corruption scandal in 2019, after just a year and a half in power.

T.Khatib--SF-PST