Austria's election - The shadows of the past as a promise for the future

As Austria holds a general election on Sunday that might have historical results, the possible winner of the vote - the leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), Herbert Kickl, brought back memories of a troubling ghost of his party's past. Speaking on Friday at the closing event of the FPÖ's campaign, in front of Vienna's historical St. Stephan Cathedral at the heart of Austria's capital, 55-year-old Kickl, a highly controversial former interior minister who has chaired the FPÖ since June 2021, declared that he hopes to achieve what one his predecessors, Jörg Haider, failed to achieve 25 years ago and become the first Austrian chancellor from his party. 

In the 1999 general election, the FPÖ under Haider became, for the first time in its and Austria's history, the second strongest party, having received 500 votes more than its right-wing rival, the Conservative People's Party (ÖVP). It was the first time after WWII that a European far-right party, founded by veteran Nazis, became such a leading political force.

Haider, son to Nazi parents, had praised the "proper employment policy" of the Third Reich, hailed Waffen-SS veterans as "respectable men with character," defined the establishment of Austria "an ideological miscarriage" but then warned that by joining the EU Austria will lose its sovereignty and become controlled by foreign powers like a "Versailles without a war," referring to the draconian Versailles treaties imposed on Germany and Austria after WWI. He frequently made antisemitic and racist remarks. 

Haider's electoral achievement was considered, at the time, a European political earthquake. The shocked reactions abroad and massive demonstrations in Austria brought the FPÖ to accept participation in a federal government headed by the conservatives and not by the far-right. Haider was obliged not to become a member of this government, which was the first in the EU. Despite the concessions of the FPÖ, the EU imposed partial and temporary sanctions on the Austrian government, and Israel lowered its diplomatic level of representation in Vienna by recalling its ambassador back to Jerusalem.

Israel still boycotts the FPÖ. Haider later left the FPÖ, founded a new party, and died in a car accident in 2008. After his political divorce from the FPÖ, the party's new leadership made considerable efforts to distance itself from Haider's ideology. However, his sudden death created an almost mythical aura of a political martyr, with some claiming that he was deliberately eliminated. Certain conspiracy theories even connected Mossad to Haider's accident, as Haider had good relations with Arab enemies of Israel, such as Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. 

Kickl's Rise and the FPÖ's Current Position

Kickl, who worked closely with Haider in the first stages of his political career, didn't abandon the FPÖ. On the contrary, he quickly became the architect of its future electoral successes, bringing it to possibly first victory in a general election. All polls have given the FPÖ a lead in the voting intentions for over a year. The FPÖ won its first national victory in the elections to the European Parliament last June. However, the gap between the far-right and the ruling Conservative party, the ÖVP, has been dwindling since then. In his last public appearance before the election, instead of turning to the center to ensure his victory, Kickl preferred presenting himself as the one who would fulfill Haider's dream of becoming a chancellor.

"We are standing here today in St. Stephan's Square because 25 years ago, Jörg Haider stood here at his closing event of the campaign," said Kickl in an emotional tone to a public of a few thousand enthusiastic supporters.

"I remember it as if it happened yesterday. I stood beside the podium as an unimportant assistant and had goosebumps because of the amazing atmosphere. The election came, and its result was fulminant for the FPÖ, the best we had obtained in our history. It was a triumph, but it wasn't enough to win. I often think about what our country would have been spared if we had had Haider as a chancellor instead of all those who later, step by step, brought the country down. Time has not frozen, and 25 years later, I have the privilege to stand here, and I tell you: this time, it will be different. I feel it, and you feel it, too. This time we shall become number one. This time, we shall achieve it, and we shall not repeat the mistakes that we have made in the past. Being number one, we shall fulfill Haider's dream and legacy."

Kickl, who presents himself as a future "Volkskanzler," Chancellor of the People, ran an extreme anti-establishment campaign promising his voters to turn Austria into a "fortress," stopping mass illegal immigration, drastically limiting granting asylum status and reducing state assistance to asylum seekers, deporting illegal immigrants, fighting radical Islam, restoring law and order and renewing Austria's international position as a neutral country. Considered by his political rivals from left and right as too radical and authoritarian, he will face an almost impossible mission to form a government.

The leader of the conservatives, present Chancellor Karl Nehammer, ruled out on the final TV debate forming any government under or with Kickl. However, he did not explicitly exclude a coalition with the FPÖ. Sources within the conservative party confirm their readiness to form a new coalition with the far-right, the fourth of its type in 25 years. The decision on who will be nominated to build the new government lies in the hands of the Austrian President, former Green party leader Alexander Van der Bellen, who had been personally mocked and insulted by Kickl.

Kickl called his followers to ensure that the election result would give the FPÖ such an advantage over its rivals so that the president would not have "funny ideas" and turn to another party to form a government.