Europe continues to experience a strong surge of patriotic, conservative, and anti-globalist forces, moving the continental needle to the right of the political specter.
In Austria, such a political force – the Freedom Party (FPO) was the most voted in the December election with almost 29%, but when it came time to form a government, the establishment parties united to form a ‘firewall’ and deny the victors a place in the governing coalition.
That’s what FPO leader Herbert Kickl called ‘a coalition of losers’.
But the talks for this coalition broke down, and now it’s up to Kickl to try to form a government and to convince reluctant People’s Party (OVP), who are ‘mainstream’ conservatives, to take part in a coalition.
Kickl today warned to be “honest” in their imminent coalition talks, or otherwise face the prospect of a snap election, in a scenario where right-wing support is still rising and the OVP is falling.
Reuters reported:
“The Eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPO, an ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party, won the last parliamentary election in September with around 29% of the vote but was initially sidelined as centrist parties attempted to form a coalition without it.”
After coalition talks collapsed during last weekend, President Alexander van der Bellen was forced to task Kickl with forming a government.
“’Honest government must be preceded by honest negotiations’, Kickl said, adding: ‘No little games, no tricks, no sabotage’.”
Kickl called on new OVP leader Christian Stocker to keep his party united, lest they have to face another election in worsening political conditions.
“’If that is not the case, then … there will be snap election. We are prepared’, Kickl said, a clear threat given that opinion polls show FPO support has only risen since September while the OVP’s has fallen, with the gap growing to more than 10 percentage points.”
The poll results read:
“According to a survey by Market published on December 26, 2024, the FPÖ would have become the strongest party with 35 percent of the vote if there had already been National Council elections in Austria on Sunday after the survey. This would also have significantly improved on its election result of September 29, 2024, when it received 28.8 percent of the votes. In the Sunday question, the ÖVP followed with 22 percent and the SPÖ with 20 percent of the vote. The NEOS achieved ten percent of the votes in the Sunday question, the Greens came to eight percent of the vote.”
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