On Sunday September 29, the FPO (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs), Freedom Party of Austria, in French, came first in the legislative elections, receiving 29% of the votes. It is an Austrian far-right party, founded by former Nazis. For the first time since the Second World War, the FPO came first in a national vote.
Indeed, it gained 13 more points compared to the country’s last legislative elections in 2019. The conservatives came in second place, winning 26% of the vote. The Austrian People’s Party, Österreichische Volkspartei, abbreviated ÖVP, is the political force currently in power in Austria. The Social Democrats came in third position with 20% of the vote.
By winning these legislative elections, the FPO is shaking up the Austrian political scene and aligning itself with populist trends manifesting elsewhere in Europe. Several factors explain this victory. Indeed, the alliance of Greens and Conservatives (ÖVP) has disappointed the Austrian electorate due to various political scandals and their handling of economic and migration issues. The Austrian Freedom Party thus captured popular discontent with traditional parties and also capitalized on populist themes.
The far-right party advocates various subjects such as remigration, conspiracy theories, reluctance towards the European Union and proximity to Russia. For example, the FPO plans to strip Austrians of foreign origin of their nationality and expel them. He also called for an end to sanctions against Russia.
The party’s leader, Herbet Kickl is a former Austrian Interior Minister. Aged 55, the latter knew how to exploit the frustration of Austrians in the face of policies deemed repressive and ineffective put in place by the government.
Despite everything, this victory does not guarantee a government for the Freedom Party. Indeed, the FPO will face major obstacles in forming a government. The Austrian People’s Party, the party of current Chancellor Lehrmann, and the Social Democrats have expressed their reluctance to collaborate with a far-right party. Five years ago, it took the Conservatives two months to choose their government allies. The latter ended up joining forces with the Austrian environmentalist party, Die Grünen.
The accession to power of party leader Herbert Kickel therefore remains very uncertain. The negotiations will be complex and long.
The victory of the Austrian far-right party in the legislative elections is important news for Europe. Indeed, more and more nationalist political parties continue to shape the continent’s political landscape by imposing their populist themes. This summer’s European elections also show how Europe is increasingly dominated by countries with far-right governments. Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia are examples. Similar examples include the rise of parties like the Rassemblement National in France and the Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands. This phenomenon reflects a wave of distrust in traditional institutions and a growing demand for more radical policies on immigration and national sovereignty
We can identify several explanations for this rise of the extreme right in Europe: the normalization, trivialization and demonization of populist parties on the political scene but also the impact of the multiple crises that the continent has been going through since 2008 with the financial crisis dating of the same year, the 2015 migration crisis, the COVID-19 crisis of 2020, and the current inflationary crisis.
The normalization of far-right parties explains their rise in Europe. Indeed, it is a relevant textbook case for political science because it allows us to mobilize the notion of the Overton window. This notion was coined in the United States in the 1990s by American lobbyist Joseph Overton. How does a once radical idea now become banal?
The Overton window can be defined as follows: everything that public opinion considers acceptable or possible on a given subject. There are graduations and anything outside the window is taboo. It is possible to widen this window and to widen it, it is necessary to launch an unacceptable proposal and by comparison it makes other ideas a little less radical, acceptable.
For example, Donald Trump in 2015 called for a complete halt to the entry of Muslims into the United States. Four years later, once president, he succeeded in banning by decree the entry of nationals of seven Muslim countries from entering the United States (Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Libya). The first excess helps to acclimatize minds, which subsequently allows another proposal to become less radical and therefore more acceptable.