The far-right Freedom Party finished first in the Austrian general election, early projections show.

Led by Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister who was dismissed over the country’s Ibiza scandal, the party is projected to finish first on 29.1% of the vote, according to election researchers Arge Wahlen for PULS 24 TV.

They are projected to finish ahead of the ruling conservatives on 26.2%. The centre-left Social Democrats were in third place with 20.4%.

The far-right group is expected to be in pole position to form a coalition for the first time since the Second World War, though it is unclear if they will be able to secure a partner.

The party has tapped into anxieties including around immigration, inflation and the war in Ukraine and its strong performance follows recent gains for the far-right elsewhere in Europe.

Mr Kickl, who wants to become Austria’s new chancellor, has drawn criticism for his use of the term “Volkskanzler,” or chancellor of the people, which was used by the Nazis to describe Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. He has rejected the comparison.

Image:
While the Freedom Party has a slim lead in the projections, it is set to be short of an outright majority. Pic: Reuters

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Rivals have said they will not work with Mr Kickl, whose party calls for the “remigration of uninvited foreigners” and suspending the right to asylum to create “fortress Austria”.

In order to become the country’s new leader he would need a coalition partner with whom he could command a majority in the lower house of parliament.

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The Freedom Party has been critical of Western military aid to Ukraine and called for an end to sanctions against Russia.

In his closing campaign speech on Saturday, Mr Kickl claimed sanctions against Moscow over the war were hurting Austria even more than Russia.

The party also calls for a welfare system where benefits are linked to citizenship, an increase in police numbers, a ban on “political Islam”, a two-gender constitutional determination, and more referendums so voters can vote out cabinet ministers.

Who is Herbert Kickl?

After the Ibiza affair in 2019, 55-year-old Herbert Kickl became leader of the FPO in 2021.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Kickl attended anti-lockdown protests and called Israel’s mass vaccination campaign “health apartheid”.

He also refused to condemn those who likened lockdown measures to the Holocaust, despite Austria’s strict laws against antisemitism.

He rubbished claims that those making the comparison were trivialising the Nazi regime during an interview with Austrian news outlet ORF.

And in March last year, he and other FPO members left the Austrian parliament when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the chamber.

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