Refer Report
In the Austrian general election, the Austrian Freedom Party, a far-right party with Nazi roots, rose to the top for the first time since World War II, proving once again the far-right wind blowing across Europe. The Austrian Freedom Party is said to have penetrated public sentiment by touching on anxiety over the influx of refugees, inflation, and dissatisfaction with support for the war in Ukraine.
The Liberty Party, founded in 1956 by Anton Reinthaler and others with a history of serving in the Nazi SS, currently denies any connection with Nazism. However, doubts about the connection with Nazism remain, as a video released by Austrian media on the 28th, just before the election, shows Liberal Party members singing a song praising the glory of the Nazis at a funeral. Unlike many far-right political parties in Europe, such as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which raised the banner of ‘opposition to the euro’ in 2013, and began to rapidly grow and take power in the wake of COVID-19, the Austrian Freedom Party is a party with Nazi roots. , and even has experience in power, including participating in the formation of a coalition government in 2017.
Analysis suggests that the key reason for winning this election was the success of the anti-immigration strategy focused by Herbert Kickle, who has led the Liberal Party since 2021. The Austrian Freedom Party, with the slogan “Austria, the fortress of freedom,” has made strengthening immigration requirements and repatriating illegal immigrants to their home country, the so-called “re-migration,” as its core pledges over the past two years. They called for significantly strengthening the requirements for immigrants to bring their families to Austria. The Austrian Freedom Party opposes increasing aid to Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia, and also opposes the European Union’s economic sanctions against Russia. It took advantage of a situation where economic dissatisfaction was increasing due to inflation. This strategy was effective, and the Austrian Freedom Party maintained its first place in approval ratings until this election, beating the ruling center-right People’s Party (ÖVP) since early last year. The Austrian Freedom Party’s election strategy is similar to that of other European far-right parties. Representative Kikl’s role model is said to be Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who leads the Hungarian far-right party Fidesz. Prime Minister Orbán is skeptical of the expansion of the European Union and also opposes support for Ukraine. He formed a far-right alliance called ‘Patriots for Europe’ in the European Union Parliament in July with the Liberal Party and the Czech far-right opposition party ANO. . Therefore, if the Austrian Freedom Party takes power in Austria, the burden of dealing with the anti-EU far-right camp will increase at the EU level in diplomatic, economic, and climate issues such as the Ukraine issue. The Austrian Freedom Party also won 6 of the 20 seats allocated to Austria with the highest vote rate (25.4%) in the European Parliament elections last June.
However, it is unlikely that the Austrian Freedom Party will form a coalition government and produce a prime minister. According to Austria’s constitution, the president has the power to appoint the federal chancellor and ministers and to dissolve parliament. However, there are many predictions that current Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen, a former leader of the Green Party, will not nominate Kieckl as chancellor. President van der Bellen also said last year that he would not approve the appointment of anti-EU or pro-Russian party members to the cabinet. Prime Minister Karl Nehammer, who leads the People’s Party, which placed second this time, also announced that he would not form a coalition with the Liberty Party.
Berlin/Correspondent Jang Ye-ji penj@hani.co.kr
Source: Korean